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Kfv" 



A HANDBOOK TO THE POETRY 
OF RUDYARD KIPLING 



A HANDBOOK TO 

THE POETRY OF 
RUDYARD KIPLING 



RALPHDURAND 




GARDEN CITY NEW YORK 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
1914 






Copyright, igi 4 , by 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

All rights reserved, including that of 

translation into foreign languages, 

including the Scandinavian 



*w -2 \m 



'CI.A388202 



> 



\j 



% 



DEDICATION 

TO 

HENRY JOHN STALLEY ('UNCLE JOHN') 



^ 



FOR MANY YEARS ASSISTANT MASTER OF THE RELIGIOUS, 
ROYAL AND ANCIENT FOUNDATION OF CHRIST'S HOSPITAL 

It used to be the custom in the East when a man had com- 
mitted a capital offence to execute not only the criminal but 
also the man who had been entrusted with the criminal's edu- 
cation. We in the West are not so logical. We do not punish 
the tutor for the pupil's misdeeds, and, on the other hand, those 
of us who escape the gallows are apt to forget to what extent 
our escape is due to the men who educated us. I wonder 
how many of the thousands of 'Old Blues' who have passed 
through your class-room realise how great is the debt they owe 
you. Most of us knew you first as the dread Pluto of the De- 
tention School. Without the care that in that capacity you 
lavished on us we should probably all be worse men than we 
are. That point of view, however, did not occur to us at the 
time, and it was not until in fear and dread we entered your 
class-room that we began to learn to love you. When we first 
came to you, not as defaulters but as pupils, we believed that 
the science of Geography consisted of nothing more than an 
endless string of meaningless and unpronounceable names. 
You taught us that the world was a very wonderful and fasci- 
nating place, and made us yearn for the time when we should be 
able to go forth and have a look at it for ourselves. We came 



DEDICATION 

to you holding the belief that the science of History was nothing 
more than 'William-the-Conquerer-ten-sixty-six-William-the- 
Second-ten-eighty-seven,' multiplied by dreariness to an in- 
definite degree. Under the magic of your wand we saw Norman 
knight and Saxon footman fight to the death on Senlac Hill; 
we heard the thunder of Spanish guns echo along the Sus- 
sex shore; we mingled with the crowd in Whitehall, and, with a 
clearer focus than our forefathers could have used, saw how 
much there was of good and how much of base both in the king 
who died there and in the men who killed him. You taught us 
directly the measure of the privileges and responsibilities be- 
queathed to us by those who lived and fought and died for 
England. Indirectly you taught us that knowledge has a 
value more precious than its power to win marks in school and 
money in after life. Soon after I began work on this book, I 
re-read the lines, addressed by Rudyard Kipling to one of his 
former masters: 

'Let us now praise famous men 7 — 
Men of little showing — 
For their work continueth, 
And their work continueth, 
Broad and deep continueth. 
Greater than their knowing ! 

The words immediately called you to my mind. For that 
reason I dedicate this book to you, not in payment of the debt 
I owe you — I have not wealth enough for that — but in ac- 
knowledgment of it. 

RALPH DURAND. 



VI 



INTRODUCTION 

This book is offered to the public in the hope that it 
will prove of service to those to whom Mr. Rudyard 
Kipling's poems are a constant source of delight. 
Rudyard Kipling has made 

Extended observation of the wa}rs and works of man, 
From the Four-mile Radius roughly to the plains of 
Hindustan, 

with excursions into prehistoric times, ships' engine- 
rooms, Freemasonry, and other subjects. His poems 
consequently abound in precise technicalities, archaic 
words, and slang expressions enough to justify a 
glossary of the terms that he uses. An engineer does 
not need to refer to a dictionary for a definition of the 
word slip; a soldier perhaps understands what exactly 
are slingers; a Biblical student may know all that 
is now guessed as to the whereabouts of Javan, and 
a classical scholar needs no information as to the 
difference between a thranite and a thalamite. But 
the general reader who wishes to understand these 
terms must search for them in dictionaries and other 
works of reference, and may possibly find his search 
fruitless. When doubt arose as to whether expressions 
were too well known to need explanation, it was de- 

vii 



INTRODUCTION 

cided, for the benefit of the foreign reader, to err on 
the side of giving too much rather than too little infor- 
mation. 

A mere glossary of the obscure expressions which 
he uses would, however, leave the student of Rudyard 
Kipling's poems but half satisfied. For this reason 
no apology is needed for embodying in this book short 
biographical notices, such as those on ' Eddi of Man- 
hood End,' on ' Gholam Hyder, the Red Chief,' and 
on ' her that fell at Simon's Town in service on our 
foes,' or for including references to the rite of johar, 
the myth concerning * Upsaras,' or the original pro- 
pounder of the question 'Is not Calno like Carchem- 
ish ? ' And this book would certainly be incomplete 
without an explanation of the personal interest that 
attaches to ' The Rhyme of the Three Captains/ 

My notes follow the order of the poems as they 
appear in the various volumes in which they have 
been collected, from Departmental Ditties to Songs 
from Books. The last pages are devoted to a few 
poems that appeared originally in Mr. Kipling's prose 
works but have not yet been collected into volume 
form. An alphabetical list of titles and a general in- 
dex will be found at the end of the volume. 

RALPH DURAND. 



Vlll 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 

FROM 'DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES AND 
OTHER VERSES' 

PAGE 

ARMY HEADQUARTERS 3 

A LEGEND OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE . . 3 

PUBLIC WASTE 4 

WHAT HAPPENED 5 

THE MAN WHO COULD WRITE .... 8 

MUNICIPAL 8 

A CODE OF MORALS 9 

THE LAST DEPARTMENT 9 

TO THE UNKNOWN GODDESS .... IO 

THE RUPAIYAT OF OMAR KAL'viN . . . II 

DIVIDED DESTINIES 12 

THE MASQUE OF PLENTY 12 

THE SONG OF THE WOMEN .... 14 

THE BALLAD OF FISHER'S BOARDING-HOUSE . l6 

AS THE BELL CLINKS IJ 

THE GRAVE OF THE HUNDRED HEAD . . IJ 

WHAT THE PEOPLE SAID 1 8 

ONE VICEROY RESIGNS ..... 19 

A TALE OF TWO CITIES ..... 22 

GIFFEN'S DEBT 23 

ix 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 



PAGE 



IN SPRING TIME 24 

THE GALLEY SLAVE 24 

FROM < BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS AND 
OTHER VERSES' 

BEYOND THE PATH OF THE OUTMOST SUN . 26 

TO T. A. (THOMAS ATKINS) .... 26 

DANNY DEEVER 2J 

TOMMY 28 

'fuzzy-wuzzy' 29 

SCREW-GUNS . . r? • . • 31 

CELLS 32 

gunga din 34 

oonts 35 

loot 37 

'SNARLEYOw' 38 

THE WIDOW AT WINDSOR 40 

BELTS 40 

the young british soldier .... 41 

mandalay 42 

troopin' 43 

the widow's party . 43 

ford o' kabul river 44 

gentlemen-rankers 44 

route marchin' 45 

shillin' a day . 47 

the ballad of east and west ... 49 

the last suttee 52 

X 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 



THE BALLAD OF THE KING S MERCY 

THE BALLAD OF THE KING'S JEST . 
WITH SCINDIA TO DELHI .... 

THE DOVE OF DACCA 

THE BALLAD OF BOH DA THONE 

THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER CATTLE THIEF 

THE RHYME OF THE THREE CAPTAINS . 

THE BALLAD OF THE 'CLAMPHERDOWN* 

THE BALLAD OF THE ' BOLIVAR* 

THE SACRIFICE OF ER-HEB 

THE GIFT OF THE SEA .... 

EVARRA AND HIS GODS . . 

THE CONUNDRUM OF THE WORKSHOPS . 

THE LEGENDS OF EVIL .... 

THE ENGLISH FLAG 

* cleared' 

AN IMPERIAL RESCRIPT .... 

TOMLINSON 

THE LONG TRAIL 



S3 

57 

59 
64 

65 

68 

69 

75 
76 

79 
80 
81 
81 

82 
82 
84 
86 

87 
88 



FROM 'THE SEVEN SEAS' 



TO THE CITY OF BOMBAY 


. . . 93 


THE SONG OF THE ENGLISH 


93 






The Song of the Dead . 


94 




96 




97 




97 




99 



XI 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 

PAGE 

the first chantey 99 

the last chantey ioi 

the merchantmen io3 

m'andrew's hymn 108 

the miracles 119 

the native-born ii9 

THE KING 122 

the rhyme of the three sealers . . i24 

the derelict i34 

the song of the banjo . . . . . i35 

the liner she's a lady ..... i38 

mulholland's contract 139 

anchor song i40 

the lost legion i46 

the sea-wife . . . . . . . i52 

hymn before action 152 

to the true romance 1 52 

the flowers 1 53 

the last rhyme of true thomas . . 155 

in the neolithic age i58 

the story of ung 162 

the three-decker 164 

the american 167 

the 'mary gloster* ..... 167 

sestina of the tramp-royal. . . . 171 

when 'omer smote 'is bloomi^ lyre . 171 

*back to the army again* .... 172 

* birds of prey' march i76 

xii 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 



PAGB 



'soldier and sailor too' . . . . 178 

SAPPERS l8o 

THAT DAY 182 

'the men that fought at minden' . . 182 

cholera camp 1 84 

the mother-lodge 1 85 

'FOLLOW ME 'OME' l88 

THE SERGEANT'S WEDDIn' 189 

THE JACKET 189 

THE 'EATHEN 191 

THE SHUT-EYE SENTRY I94 

FROM 'THE FIVE NATIONS' 

BEFORE A MIDNIGHT BREAKS IN STORM . I96 

THE SEA AND THE HILLS I96 

THE BELL-BUOY I98 

CRUISERS 199 

DESTROYERS 200 

WHITE HORSES . . . . . . . 202 

THE SECOND VOYAGE . . . . . . 203 

THE DYKES 204 

THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ .... 205 

THE BROKEN MEN 206 

THE FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN . . . 207 

THE TRUCE OF THE BEAR .... 208 

THE OLD MEN 209 

THE EXPLORER 209 ^ 

xiii 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 

PAOB 

THE BURIAL . . 213 

GENERAL JOUBERT 215 

THE PALACE 215 

SUSSEX 2l6 

song of the wise children .... 221 

buddha at kamakura . . . . . 222 

the white man's burden .... 229 

pharaoh and the sergeant .... 230 

our lady of the snows . . . . 23 1 

et dona ferentes 232 

kitchener's school 233 

the young queen 235 

RIMMON 236 

THE OLD ISSUE . ... . . . . 237 

BRIDGE-GUARD IN THE KARROO . . . 239 

THE LESSON 240 

THE FILES 24I 

THE REFORMERS 244 

DIRGE OF DEAD SISTERS 244 

THE ISLANDERS 245 

THE PEACE OF DIVES 248 

THE SETTLER 250 

CHANT PAGAN 25 1 

M. 1 253 

COLUMNS 257 

THE PARTING OF THE COLUMNS . . . 259 

TWO KOPJES . 260 

BOOTS 262 

xiv 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 

PAGB 

THE MARRIED MAN ...... 262 

LICHTENBERG 263 

STELLENBOSH 264 

HALF-BALLAD OF WATERVAL .... 265 

PIET 266 

'wilful-missing' 270 

UBIQUE . . 270 

RECESSIONAL 272 



FROM 'SONGS FROM BOOKS' 

puck's song . . . . . . . 274 

a three-part song 277 

the run of the downs 277 

brookland road 278 

sir Richard's song 279 

a tree song 279 

A CHARM 280 

CHAPTER HEADINGS I PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS 
Heading to In the House of Suddhoo — 

'A STONE'S THROW OUT ON EITHER HAND' . . . 28l 

Heading to Cupid's Arrows — 

'Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide' . . 281 

COLD IRON 2^2 

A SONG OF KABIR 282 

*MY NEW-CUT ASHLAR' 284 

EDDl's SERVICE 284 

SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER . 284 

THE FAIRIES' SIEGE 285 

A SONG TO MITHRAS ...... 28$ 

XV 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 



THE NEW KNIGHTHOOD 
OUTSONG IN THE JUNGLE 
A ST. HELENA LULLABY 

chil's SONG 

THE CAPTIVE 

HADRAMAUTI . 

CHAPTER HEADINGS : THE NAULAHKA 
' Beat off in our last fight were we? ' 
'We be Gods of the East' 

CHAPTER HEADINGS : THE LIGHT THAT FAILED 
'The lark will make her hymn to God ' 
' Yet at the last, ere our spearmen had found him ' 

GALLIo's SONG 

THE BEES AND THE FLIES 

ROAD-SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG 

A BRITISH ROMAN SONG 

A PICT SONG 

RIMINI .... 

'poor HONEST men' . 

PROPHETS AT HOME . 
JUBAL AND TUBAL-CAIN 
THE VOORTREKKER 
A SCHOOL SONG . 
'OUR FATHERS OF OLD* 

CHAPTER HEADINGS : BEAST AND MAN IN INDIA 

'Dark children of the mere and marsh' 
SONG OF THE FIFTH RIVER 
PARADE SONG OF THE CAMP ANIMALS 
THE TWO-SIDED MAN 

'lukannon' 

xvi 



286 
287 
287 
288 
288 
290 

292 
292 

293 
293 
293 
295 
296 
296 
296 
297 
298 
300 
300 
30I 
302 

304 

306 

307 
308 

309 
311 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 

PAGE 

AN ASTROLOGER'S SONG 312 

THE BEE BOY'S SONG 312 

MERROW DOWN 313 

OLD MOTHER LAIDINWOOL . . . . 316 

CHAPTER HEADINGS: JUST-SO STORIES 

'When the cabin port-holes are dark and green' . .318 

'This is the mouth-filling song' 318 

China-going P. and O.V 319 

'There was never a queen like Balkis' . . . .321 

THE QUEEN'S MEN 322 

GOW'S WATCH 322 

SONG OF THE RED WAR BOAT . . . .323 

A RIPPLE SONG . 324 

BUTTERFLIES 325 

THE NURSING SISTER 325 

THE ONLY SON 325 

MOWGLl's SONG AGAINST PEOPLE . . . 326 

CHAPTER HEADINGS : THE JUNGLE BOOKS 

'At the hole where he went in' 327 

the egg-shell 328 

the king's task 328 

poseidon's law 332 

a truthful song 334 

a smuggler's SONG . . . . . -335 

king henry vii. and the shipwrights . 336 

the wet litany 337 

the ballad of minepit shaw . . 338 

heriot's ford 339 

frankie's trade ........ 340 

xvii 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 

PAGE 

thorkild's song 341 

angutivaun taina 341 

the song of the men's side .... 34i 

darzee's chaunt 344 

the prayer 345 



FROM ' A SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND ' 

the roman centurion 346 

the pirates in england .... 347 

the saxon foundations of england . . 347 

william the conqueror' s work . . . 348 

norman and saxon 348 

the reeds of runnymede .... 349 

with drake in the tropics .... 35o 

before edgehill fight 35 1 

the dutch in the medway . . . • 352 

'brown bess' 352 

after the war . . . . . . . 352 

the bells and the queen .... 353 

the secret of the machines .... 353 



FROM OTHER POEMS 

CHAPTER HEADING: PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS 
Heading to Consequences — 

'R.OSICRUCIAN SUBTLETIES' 

CHAPTER HEADING: THE NAULAHKA 
'In the state of Kot-Kumharsen' . 
CHAPTER HEADING: BEAST AND MAN IN INDIA 



354 
355 



xvin 



TITLES OF POEMS ANNOTATED 

Heading to The Seven Nights of Creation — page 

'O Hassan! Saving Allah, there is none' . . . 356 
CHAPTER HEADING! KIM 

'Yea, voice of every soul that clung' 357 

the runners {Traffics and Discoveries) . . 358 

THE RUNES ON WELAND's SWORD (Puck OJ 

Pook's Hill) .358 

Philadelphia (Rewards and Fairies) . . 361 

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF POEMS ANNOTATED 363 
GENERAL INDEX 367 



xix 



A HANDBOOK TO THE POETRY 
OF RUDYARD KIPLING 



Departmental Ditties and Other Verses 

ARMY HEADQUARTERS 

Stanza 2. He clubbed his wretched company a 
dozen times a day. I. e. he drilled his company so 
badly that it became entangled and could not be put 
straight by any recognised word of command. To 
restore order the men would have to 'fall out' or 
scatter and re-form again. 

Stanza 3 . Simla is a cool, healthy, and beautiful 
town, built on a spur of the lower Himalayas, between 
6,000 and 8,000 feet above sea-level. During the 
summer months it is the Viceroy's headquarters and 
the seat of the Supreme Government of India as well 
as of the Punjab Government. It is, naturally, the 
centre of Indian society during the summer. 

A LEGEND OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE 

The Native States in India are governed by their 
respective princes, each of whom has the help and 
advice of a political officer appointed by the supreme 
Indian Government. Negotiations between an In- 
dian State and the Supreme Government are con- 
ducted through the Indian Foreign Office. The 
native princes are allowed to manage the internal 

3 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

affairs of their states so long as they do so without in- 
justice or oppression. The progress that some states 
have made under enlightened rajahs is evident from 
the very vivid accounts which Rudyard Kipling has 
given in 'Letters of Marque' {From Sea to Sea) of the 
cities of Jeypore, Udaipur, Chitor, Jodhpur, and 
Boondi in Rajputana. The Naulahka, by Rudyard 
Kipling and Wolcott Balestier, also depicts life in a 
Native State. 

Stanza i. Lusted' for a C. S. I. — so began to sani- 
tate. Many Indian princes do not wholly understand 
or approve the Supreme Government's love for sani- 
tation, but to humour it on this point is recognised 
as advisable by those who wish to stand well with the 
Viceroy. There is an old story to the effect that a 
native prince, knowing that the Viceroy intended to 
inspect some interesting old carvings in his dominions, 
prepared for his visit by having the carvings white- 
washed. The Order C. S. I. (Companion of the 
Star of India) is an honour conferred, on such occa- 
sions as the King's birthday, on native princes and 
other notables who deserve recognition. 

Stanza 5. Nothing more than C. I. E. The Order 
Companion of the Indian Empire is lower and con- 
sequently less valued than the C. S. I. 

PUBLIC WASTE 

The Little Tin Gods on the Mountain Side. A dis- 
respectful reference to the Viceroy of India and his 

4 



AND OTHER VERSES 

Executive Council, who during the summer months 
have their headquarters in the hills at Simla. 

Stanza I. Chatham. A garrison town at which 
officers of the Royal Engineers attend the School of 
Military Engineering. 

Stanza 3. Vauban, a marshal of France of the 
seventeenth century, was a celebrated military en- 
gineer. His work had a profound influence on the 
arts of fortification and siegecraft. 

The ' College.' The Staff College at Camberley, at 
which officers who wish to qualify for staff appoint- 
ments are trained. 

Stanza 6. Exempt from the Law of the Fifty and 
Five. Exempt from the regulation which requires a 
man to retire at the age of fifty-five. 

Stanza 7. Four thousand a month. Four thousand 
rupees, equivalent to about £260. 

WHAT HAPPENED 

Hurree Chunder Mookerjee in this poem typifies 
the Bengali 'babu,' the semi-literate representative of 
a race of which Macaulay wrote, 'There never, per- 
haps, existed a people so thoroughly fitted by nature 
and by habit for a foreign yoke/ Prior to British 
rule in India the Bengalis were the constant prey of 
bolder and hardier races, and it is probable that, as 
this poem forecasts, their lot would not be a happy 
one if British protection were withdrawn from them. 
Mentally the Bengalis are exceedingly acute, and 

5 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

they succeed admirably in any profession where me- 
chanical intelligence is needed but bravery and initia- 
tive are not. No sweeping condemnation of the 
Bengalis would, however, be just. Though they have 
an excessive fear of physical pain they have none of 
death. Either in an aeroplane or on the scaffold a 
Bengali will be calm and collected. Rudyard Kipling 
gives the more commendable side of the Bengali 
character in Kim. In that book the Babu, also called 
Hurree Chunder Mookerjee, admits that he is 'a very 
fearful man' and turns pale at the sound of the click 
of a rifle-breech, yet he shows a degree of moral cour- 
age that astonishes both the Irish lad and the reckless 
Afghan, Mahbub Ali. 

Each of the other characters in this poem represents 
one of the warlike races of India. Yar Mahommed 
Yusufzai represents the Pathans of the N. W. Frontier 
Province, such as are depicted in 'Wee Willie Winkie,' 
'The Drums of the Fore and Aft/ 'The Head of the 
District' {Life's Handicap), 'The Lost Legion' {Many 
Inventions), and other stories. Chimbu Singh repre- 
sents the Rajpoots. The Bhils are an aboriginal 
tribe formerly much given to plundering. They ap- 
pear in ' The Tomb of his Ancestors' ( The Day's Work) . 
The Marris are a brave and lawless tribe of Baluchis- 
tan. The Sikhs provide some of the best soldiers in 
the Indian army, but, unlike the Marris, they are 
notable for their loyalty to the British Empire. The 
tale, 'A Sahib's War' {Traffics and Discoveries), is told 

6 



AND OTHER VERSES 

by a native officer in a Sikh regiment. The Jats of 
the Punjab, who are agriculturists, also make excel- 
lent soldiers. The Wahabis are a fanatical Moham- 
medan sect who preach the holiness of war against 
unbelievers. Boh Hla-oo represents the Burmese 
dacoits, who, when safe opportunity offers, make up 
in bloodthirstiness what they lack in actual courage. 
Their methods of warfare are described in 'A Con- 
ference of the Powers' (Many Inventions), 'The Tak- 
ing of Lungtungpen' (Plain Tales from the Hills), 
'The Ballad of Boh daThone' (Barrack-Room Ballads), 
and 'The Grave of the Hundred Head' (Departmental 
Ditties). 

Stanza 7. The Grand Trunk Road leads right 
across northern India from Calcutta to Peshawur (see 
note, 'Route Marchin',' stanza 1, p. 45). 

Stanza 9. The quoit is the ancient weapon of the 
Sikhs. It is sharp on the outside edge, and when 
thrown will cut through a plantain stalk at a distance 
of 80 yards. 

Stanza 11. Pubbi is a village near Peshawur on 
the N. W. Frontier border. 

Stanza 12. Siva's sacred bull. Hindoos regard 
the bull as sacred because Siva, the third god of the 
Hindoo Trinity, rode on one. The streets of every 
Indian town are infested with sacred bulls, who feed at 
will on the grain, etc., exposed for sale in the bazaars. 

The Indian Congress men. (See note, 'One Viceroy 
resigns/ line 128, p. 21.) 

7 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

THE MAN WHO COULD WRITE 

Stanza 2. Wicked wit of C-lv-n, irony of L /. 

Sir Auckland Colvin was Financial Member of the 
Viceroy's Council, 1 883-1 887. Sir Alfred Comyn 
Lyall was Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, 1882- 
1887. 

Stanza 7. Posed as young Ithuriel, resolute and 
grim. Ithuriel is an angel, the touch of whose spear 
exposes deceit. When Satan contrived to get into 
Paradise, Gabriel sent Ithuriel to find where he 
had hidden himself. Satan was disguised, but the 
touch of Ithuriel's spear compelled him to reveal 
himself. 

MUNICIPAL 

Stanza 2. That Commissariat elephant had sud' 
denly gone musth. Musth is a state of excitement to 
which elephants are periodically liable. Their keepers 
understand and provide for it. Mere bad temper is 
quite different. In 'My Lord the Elephant' {Many 
Inventions) a mahout says that when an elephant is 
angry he will kill any one except his keeper, but when 
he is musth he will kill his keeper first. In the same 
story an elephant loses his temper, creates a panic, 
and chases 'a gunner orf'cer in full rig'mentals down 
the road, hell-for-leather, wid his mouth open' till the 
officer 'dived like a rabbut into a dhrain by the side av 
the road/ 



AND OTHER VERSES 

A CODE OF MORALS 

Stanza I. Heliograph. The heliograph is an in- 
strument used to signal messages over distances too 
great to be covered by signalling with flags. Sunlight 
is caught on a mirror and flashed to those who wait to 
receive the message. The message, which is sent in 
the Morse code, is spelt out in a series of long and 
short flashes, long flashes to represent 'dashes' and 
short to represent 'dots/ Thus a long flash followed 
by two short ones — dash, dot, dot (see stanza 5) — 
spells D; a short flash — dot — spells E; a short fol- 
lowed by a long flash — dot, dash — is A; and dot, dash, 
dot, is R. One operator wishing to call up and get 
into conversation with another will make the signal 
which means 'are you there' again and again until 
he sees the flash of a reply. Only those almost di- 
rectly in the line of the flash can see it. 

THE LAST DEPARTMENT 

Stanza 3. When idleness of all Eternity 

Becomes our furlough, and the marigold 
Our thriftless, bullion-minting Treasury. 
In most parts of India it is practically impossible to 
grow turf. Graves are, therefore, often planted with 
marigolds. 

Stanza 6. Mallie. Gardener. 
Stanza 7. Sheristadar. Clerk of the court, who 
reads depositions, etc. 

9 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

TO THE UNKNOWN GODDESS 

Stanza 4. Will you stay in the plains till Septem- 
ber. Most English women, and all men who can get 
away, leave the Indian plains in the summer and go 
to Simla or some other cool ,hill station. September 
is the month in which the agony of the long summer 
culminates. In the poem, 'Pagett, M. P./ the globe- 
trotter who regarded the heat of India as a solar myth 
promises to stay till September to prove his conten- 
tion. In July, however, he could stand no more of it 
and fled. A woman who would voluntarily stay in 
the plains throughout the summer would be com- 
mendably faithful, though perhaps foolish. 

Tkermantidote, an enclosed paddle-wheel, actuated 
by hand, for driving air through screens of wet scented 
grass (kus-kus) with the idea of lowering the tem- 
perature of rooms in hot weather. The throb of the 
paddles and the drip of the water is a characteristic 
hot-weather sound. 

Stanza 5. ( Thirte en-two' — a polo pony 13 hands 
2 inches in height. The standard size is now 14*2. 

Stanza 6. The Delight of Wild Asses. Cf. Jere- 
miah ii. 24: 'A wild ass used to the wilderness, that 
snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure/ 

Stanza 8. 

As of old on Mars Hill when they raised 
To the God that they knew not an altar. 
Cf. Acts xvii. 22, 23: 'Then Paul stood in the midst 

10 



AND OTHER VERSES 

of Mars hill, and said, Ye men of Athens ... as 
I passed by . . . I found an altar with this in- 
scription, "To the unknown God."' 

THE RUPAIYAT OF OMAR KAL'VIN 

This poem is a parody of Fitzgerald's now famous 
translation of 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam/ 
A 'Rubaiyat' is a .poem, and a 'rupiya' is a ru- 
pee, the standard coin in India. Sir Auckland 
Colvin (Omar Kal'vin), when Financial Member 
of the Viceroy's Council, imposed an Income Tax, 
the burden of which fell almost entirely on Anglo- 
Indians. 

Stanza I. With begging Dish. Religious mendi- 
cants in India carry bowls in which they receive alms, 
usually in the shape of food, from the charitable. 
When Kim accompanied the Teshoo Lama on his 
pilgrimage it was his duty to beg with the Lama's 
bowl. 

Stanza 2. Salt a Lever that I dare not use. The 
great majority of the population in India consists of 
agriculturists, who subsist almost entirely on what 
they themselves grow, and who use currency very 
little. It is therefore a difficult problem to find a 
means of taxing these. Salt, therefore, has been 
made a government monopoly, and is sold for very 
much more than it costs to produce and distribute. 
To raise the price still further, therefore, would cause 
discontent. 

11 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

DIVIDED DESTINIES 

Stanza 2. Nor am I plagued with little cards for 
little drinks at Mess. It is the custom at regimental 
messes and at most clubs in the East for a man to pay 
for refreshments by signing a card or 'chit' for the 
amount due, and paying cash to redeem his chits at 
the end of the month. 

Stanza 3. Pelitis. A restaurant, and a general 
afternoon rendezvous of Simla society. 

THE MASQUE OF PLENTY 

CHORUS OF THE CRYSTALLISED FACTS 

Strachey. Sir John Strachey entered the Bengal 
Civil Service in 1842. Among other offices he was 
member of Legislative Council, member of the Gov- 
ernor-General's Council, acting Viceroy and Finan- 
cial Minister. His reform of the salt-tax resulted 
in increased revenue and cheaper salt. He in- 
stituted a scheme of government insurance against 
famine. 

Muir. Sir William Muir entered the Bengal Civil 
Service in 1837. He held the offices of Foreign 
Secretary to the Indian Government, Lieutenant- 
Governor of the North-West Provinces, and Financial 
Member of the Council. 

Lytton. Lord Lytton became Governor-General 
of India in 1875. His title was changed to that of 

12 



AND OTHER VERSES 

Viceroy in 1877, when Queen Victoria assumed the 
title of Empress of India. During his Viceroyalty the 
Afghan War (1 879-1 880) was fought. A serious fam- 
ine in 1 876-1 878 caused the appointment of a Famine 
Commission, which recommended increased irrigation, 
development of communications, the reform of the 
salt-tax, and famine insurance. 

Ripon. Lord Ripon succeeded Lord Lytton as 
Viceroy of India in 1880. He reversed his prede- 
sessor's Afghan policy, extended the rights of the 
natives and curtailed those of the Europeans in India, 
a policy which made him very popular with the former 
and unpopular with the latter. 

Temple. Sir Richard Temple in 1868 became a 
member of the Supreme Government in India, first 
as Foreign Secretary and then as Finance Minister. 
He was made Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal in 1874, 
and did good work during the famine of that year. 
In 1877 he became Governor of Bombay. He was 
famed for endurance in the saddle, to the discomfort 
of his A. D. C.s. 

At his heart is his daughter s wedding. Rigid 
custom demands that an Indian peasant must lavish 
large sums of money on festivities for his daughter's 
wedding. To obtain the necessary money he usually 
borrows at high rates of interest from a money-lender, 
to whom he mortgages everything he possesses. The 
debt thus contracted often cripples himself and his 
son after him. 

13 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

THE SONG OF THE WOMEN 

When Abdur Rahman, late Amir of Afghanistan, 
attended the Viceroy's Durbar at Rawalpindi in 1885, 
he made the acquaintance of Lady DufTerin. Later, 
when he wrote his autobiography, a work that was not 
written with the intention of currying favour with 
any one, he said, * It was a great delight to me to meet 
Lady DufTerin, who was the cleverest woman I had 
ever seen. The people had never seen such a wise 
statesman as their Viceroy, and Lady Dufferin's resi- 
dence in India was of hardly less importance than 
that of her husband/ This tribute is interesting as 
coming from one who had nothing to gain by flattery; 
had it come from an Indian prince anxious to curry 
favour its genuineness might be open to suspicion. 
It is valuable, too, because it comes from an Asiatic, 
and the Asiatic point of view on such movements as 
that initiated by Lady DufTerin seldom coincides with 
European opinion. Lady DufTerin was no mere aris- 
tocratic figure-head lending her name and patronage 
to a charity conceived and organised by some one 
else. Her fund for providing female doctors, nurses, 
and midwives for the Indian women was almost en- 
tirely her own idea. Queen Victoria had suggested 
that she should try and find some way of bettering 
the lot of Indian women, and Lady DufTerin was 
helped by the experience and the money of many, 
English and native, in India ; the scheme, nevertheless, 

14 



AND OTHER VERSES 

was truly hers. She initiated it, and did more than 
any one else to further its success. How near the 
work was to her heart can be realised by any one who 
reads her book, The Story of our Vice-regal Life in 
India. 

It is interesting to note that this poem has been 
inscribed on the wall of a room at Clandeboye, Lord 
Dufferin's home. 

Stanza i . The Walls are high. The great majority 
of better-class women in India have to spend their 
whole lives from childhood onwards 'behind the 
curtain.' The ' harem ' or ' zenana ' in which a woman 
is confined may be a luxuriously gilded prison, or it 
may be a squalid, insanitary, airless garret, according 
to the means of the husband. In either case, no man 
except the woman's husband and nearest relations 
are allowed to visit her. She is therefore beyond the 
reach of skilled male medical aid, except in exceptional 
circumstances in which a doctor is allowed to feel 
the pulse of her hand thrust through a curtain. No 
other arrangement would be allowed whatever the 
ailment. The women's need for skilled medical 
aid is the more urgent because many Indian girl- 
wives become mothers at the age of twelve. It 
was for these reasons that Lady DufTerin's Fund 
was instituted, to 'train up and otherwise pro- 
vide female doctors, nurses, and midwives' for Indian 
women. 

The Naulahka, by Rudyard Kipling and Wolcott 

i5 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

Balestier, deals with an American girl who took charge 
of a hospital in a Native State. 

THE BALLAD OF FISHER'S BOARDING- 
HOUSE 

A seamen's boarding-house is an institution very 
different from the kind of boarding-house known to 
most people. The proprietor of a seamen's boarding- 
house usually obtains his guests in the first place by 
meeting them as soon as they come off their ships, and 
winning their regard by advancing them money to 
spend before their wages are paid them. He will take 
charge of the money when it is paid, and deduct there- 
from charges for board and lodging, for drinks which 
he supplies, and for articles of kit — oilskins, sea-boots, 
etc. — all supplied at grossly exorbitant rates. When 
the time comes for the seaman to go to sea again, the 
boarding-house master will cash the advance-note 
which the man receives on account of the wages that 
he will earn, charging a discount of perhaps fifty 
per cent, for his trouble. Many boarding-house 
masters add to their incomes by shanghaing sea- 
men, that is, drugging them and handing them 
over at so much per head to any shipmaster who 
wants them. As a sailor finds it very difficult to 
recover the money that he has entrusted to the 
boarding-house master, and as it is to the latter's 
interest to make him drunk as quickly as possible in 
order to get rid of him the sooner, seamen's board- 

16 



AND OTHER VERSES 

ing-houses are seldom models of quiet and respect- 
ability. 

Collinga and Jaun Bazar, the haunts of 'Anne of 
Austria/ are two of the most disreputable quarters 
in Calcutta. 

AS THE BELL CLINKS 

Note here the characteristic noise of curricle-bar 
on the ponies' saddles. Tongas are now obsolete on 
the Umballa-Simla route. 

THE GRAVE OF THE HUNDRED HEAD 

Very little has been written about the Burmese 
War in a form accessible to the average reader. If the 
subject-index of a good library be consulted, it will 
probably be found that the general public must go to 
Rudyard Kipling more than to any other author for 
information on the subject. He has dealt with it in 
'The Taking of Lungtungpen' {Plain Tales from the 
Hills), 'A Conference of the Powers' {Many Inven- 
tions), and 'The Ballad of Boh da Thone' {Barrack- 
Room Ballads). 

Stanza 4. Samadh. Commemoration or memorial 
service over a grave. 

Stanza 6. A jingal covered the clearing, 
Calthrops hampered the way. 
A jingal is a small muzzle-loading light cannon almost 
like the swivel or 'murthering-piece' of the Armada. 
Cf. 'Taking of Lungtungpen' {Plain Tales from the 

17 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

Hills). Calthrops, in this case, are sharp pieces of 
bamboo scientifically placed in narrow jungle tracks 
to maim the unwary. 

Stanza 14. Kullah. A foreigner. 

WHAT THE PEOPLE SAID 

June 21st, 1887, the date attached to the poem, 
was that on which Queen Victoria celebrated her first 
jubilee. 

Stanza 3. Mahratta spear. The Mahrattas rose 
to power towards the end of the seventeenth century, 
and by the end of the eighteenth ruled almost the 
whole of India. Their power was broken by the 
Afghans at the battle of Paniput in 1761 (see 'With 
Scindia to Delhi/ stanza 1, p. 59). 

Mlech, a term applied by Hindoos to all who are 
not Hindoos. In this case it refers to the Moham- 
medan Afghans. 

Stanza 4. Great serpents, blazing, of red and blue. 
The people of India are very fond of pyrotechnic dis- 
plays. They have considerable skill in making fire- 
works, but less in letting them off. Being blown up 
in a firework display that went wrong was one of 
the adventures that befell Kim after he evaded his 
guardians and took to the road. 

Stanza 5. The Bar. Bar is the name given to 
each of the sandy tracts, now irrigated by canals, that 
lie between the different rivers of the Punjab. 

Stanza 6. Mogul. The Mogul emperors ruled 



AND OTHER VERSES 

the greater part of India from early in the sixteenth 
century until the rise of the Mahrattas to power. 

ONE VICEROY RESIGNS 

Lord Lansdowne succeeded Lord Dufferin as Vice- 
roy of India in 1888. In her book, Our Vice-regal Life 
in India, Lady Dufferin says that on the Sunday 
following the new Viceroy's arrival, 'D. shut himself 
up with Lord Lansdowne and talked to him for four 
hours without stopping.' The conversation was prob- 
ably on the lines suggested in this poem. 

The people whose names are hinted at include the 
following: Sir Charles Crosthwaite, Chief Commis- 
sioner of British Burma, 1 883-1 884; Sir Theodore 
Cracroft Hope, Public Works Member of the Gov- 
ernor-General's Council, 1 882-1 887; Lord Wolseley, 
Adjutant-General to the Forces in 1888; W. E. Glad- 
stone, Leader of the Opposition in 1888; Lord Cross, 
Secretary for India, 1 886-1 892; Lord Reay, Governor 
of Bombay 1 885-1 890; Sir Auckland Colvin, Financial 
Member of the Viceroy's Council, 1883-1887; Sir 
Alfred Comyn Lyall, Lieutenant-Governor of the 
North-West Provinces, 1 882-1 887; Sir Edward Buck, 
Secretary of Revenue and Agricultural Department, 
who represented the Government of India at the 
Indian and Colonial Exhibition of 1886; Sir James 
Westland, Comptroller-General, Financial Depart- 
ment, 1 880-1 885; Sir Alexander Wilson, Member of 
the Legislative Council of India and Chairman of the 

19 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

Mercantile Bank of Bengal ; and Sir Charles Aitchison, 
Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, Author of A 

Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and Sannuds re- 
lating to India and neighbouring Countries. 

Line 14. It frightened Me in Eighty-Four. In 
1884 Lord DufTerin began his term of office as Viceroy 
of India. 

Line 15. You shouldn't take a man from Canada. 
Lord DufTerin was Governor-General of Canada from 
1872 to 1878. 
Lines 23-24. / go back 

To Rome and leisure. 
Lord DufTerin was made Ambassador at Rome after 
he left India. 

Line 27. Egypt served my turn. In 1882 Lord 
DufTerin was sent to Egypt as British Commissioner 
to report on a scheme of reorganisation. 

Lines 41-42. / took a country twice the size of France, 
And shuttered up one doorway in the 
North. 
During his term of office Lord DufTerin annexed 
Burma and checked Russia's advance towards India. 
Lines 51-53. Have you met 

A grim lay reader with a taste for coins, 
And faith in Sin most men withhold from God? 
This refers to Sir T. C. Hope. 

Line 64. Shall I write letters answering H-nt-r — 
fawn with R-p-n on the Yorkshire grocers? Sir William 
Wilson Hunter, the compiler of the Imperial Gazetteer, 

20 



AND OTHER VERSES 

was in the Indian Civil Service from 1862 to 1887. 
During the latter part of his service he contributed 
weekly articles on Indian affairs to the Times. Lord 
Ripon was Lord Dufferin's immediate predecessor in 
India. His policy of curtailing the privileges of the 
European in India and enlarging those of the native 
was more popular in Yorkshire than among the Eng- 
lish in India. 

Line 76. Hates cats and knows his business. Lord 
Roberts's antipathy to cats is well known. During 
Lord Dufferin's tenure of office Lord (then Sir Fred- 
erick) Roberts became Commander-in-Chief in India. 

Line 127. Lift the salt-tax. (See note, 'The 
Rupaiyat of Omar Kal'vin,' stanza 2, p. 11.) 

Line 128. The Congress was a political league 
founded by A. O. Hume to give the natives an oppor- 
tunity of expressing their political views. It had no 
official position. It first met at Calcutta in the win- 
ter of 1886-1887. 

Lines 131-132. Ask a Lady Doctor once 

How little Begums see the light. 
A Begum is a Hindoo princess or lady of rank (see 
also note, 'The Song of the Women,' stanza 1, p. 

IS)- 

Lines 135-136. / told the Turk he was a gentleman. 

I told the Russian that his Tartar 

veins 

Bled pure Parisian ichor. 

Lord Dufferin established a high reputation for 

21 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

diplomacy when Ambassador at Petersburg (1879- 
1881) and Constantinople (1881-1882). 

Line 142. That new land where all the wires are 
cut. A British-Indian administrator's idea of heaven 
on earth is said to be a place where there are no tele- 
graphs, and where consequently he can carry out such 
legislation as he, being on the spot, knows to be right 
without interference from less well-informed authority 
in England. 

Line 164. Palaces — with draughts. During the 
first few months of her life in Tndia, Lady Dufferin, in 
her letters to her mother, published in Our Vice-regal 
Life in India, frequently complained of the cold. 
Until the hot weather came she found the devices for 
admitting as free a current of air as possible into 
every room very trying. She speaks particularly of 
the agony both she and Lord Dufferin suffered from 
the punkahs in church. 

A TALE OF TWO CITIES 

Stanza I . Stands a City — Charnock chose it — packed 
away 

Near a Bay — 
By the sewage rendered fetid. 
Calcutta was founded in 1686 by Job Charnock, a 
merchant seaman who became an 'agent' in the ser- 
vice of the East India Company. For a vigorous 
denunciation of Calcutta's sanitary arrangements see 
the articles entitled 'The City of Dreadful Night' 

22 



AND OTHER VERSES 

{From Sea to Sea), in which the Calcutta smell is de- 
scribed as resembling 'the essence of corruption that 
has rotted for the second time — the clammy odour of 
blue slime/ 

Stanza 4. "Because for certain months, we boil and 
stew, 
So should you." 

While the seat of the Supreme Government of 
India was alternately at Calcutta and at Simla, 
residents of the former considered that the Viceroy 
and his staff should remain the whole year in Cal- 
cutta instead of going to Simla during the summer 
months. 

St. Lawrence. (See note, 'Et Dona Ferentes,' 
stanza 3, p. 233.) 

Stanza 5. Darjeeling, a hill station in the lower 
Himalayas, 367 miles from Calcutta, is the summer 
quarters of the Bengal Government. 

GIFFEN'S DEBT 

Line 5. Turned three parts Mussalman and one 
Hindu. A sketch of an English loafer who adopts 
native life in India is given in 'To be Filed for Refer- 
ence' {Plain Tales from the Hills). 

Line 67. And may in time become a Solar Myth. 
A reference to the theories of those students of 
mythology who believe that every legend of gods, 
goddesses, demi-gods, etc., is an allegorical reference 
to some phenomenon of nature. 

23 



DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES 

IN SPRING TIME 

In Beast and Man in India John Lockwood Kip- 
ling says that whereas a Western ear finds no more in 
the song of the koil than a tiresome iteration of one or 
two clear, high, and resonant notes, the Oriental re- 
gards it as the most musical of all birds. Moreover, 
'the Englishman in India has a grudge against the 
koil, listening with modified rapture to notes that 
warn him to put up his punkah, overhaul his ther- 
mantidote, and prepare for the long St. Lawrence 
penance of an Indian summer/ 

THE GALLEY SLAVE 

This poem is an allegorical tribute to the men of 
the Indian Civil Service. 

Stanza 2. Bulkheads. Partitions dividing the in- 
terior of the vessel into compartments. 

Stepped. A mast is held in position by a 'step' or 
socket. A mast is 'stepped' at its butt end and 
'stayed' with ropes above. 

Sweep-head. The handle of the oar. 

Stanza 3 . As we snatched her through the water. Com- 
pare the use of the word snatch here with its use in the 
' Anchor Song ' ( The Seven Seas), 1 Over, snatch her over.' 

Stanza 5. Yawed and Sheered. Went off her 
course, first to one side then to the other. 

Stanza 10. Orlop. The lower deck, on which ca- 
bles and other heavy gear are stowed. 

24 



AND OTHER VERSES 

Stanza n. The top-men cleared the raffle. Crews 
of ships in Nelson's time were so organised that each 
man had his special place aloft, thus the 'fore-top/ 
the 'main-top.' and the 'mizzen-top' would each have 
their respective crews. When a ship was in action 
her top-men were usually kept busy in repairing rig- 
ging damaged by the shot of the enemy. 



25 



Barrack—Room Ballads and other Verses 

BEYOND THE PATH OF THE 
OUTMOST SUN 

Stanza 6. To these . . . my brothers spirit 
came. Wolcott Balestier, to whose memory these 
lines are a tribute, died in December 1891, shortly 
after completing The Naulahka, a novel of Indian life 
which he wrote in collaboration with Rudyard Kip- 
ling. In the following year Rudyard Kipling married 
Miss Caroline Star Balestier, the sister of Wolcott 
Balestier. 

TO T. A. (THOMAS ATKINS) 

Thomas or Tommy Atkins is the conventional nick- 
name for a soldier in the British army. At one time 
the War Office served out to all soldiers manuals in 
which each man was to enter his name, age, length of 
service, wounds, medals, etc. Precise instructions as 
to how these details should be entered were explained 
by a specimen entry giving particulars of an imaginary 
soldier, called for the purpose Thomas Atkins. The 
hypothetical name selected soon became the recog- 
nised nickname for a soldier. It is said that the Duke 
of Wellington, when commander-in-chief, was asked 

z6 



AND OTHER VERSES 

to suggest a name for the purpose of the specimen 
entry, and that he chose the name of a private whose 
bravery in action had greatly impressed him. 

When they '11 give you all your pay. The minimum 
pay of a private soldier, not counting deferred pay, 
was a shilling a day at the time when this poem was 
written. Deductions might be made from this pay 
for repairs to clothing, the replacing of lost, stolen, or 
worn-out kit, laundry, hair-cutting, groceries, etc. 
The regulations provided that not more than 5 Jd. 
a day might be stopped at any one time except when 
a soldier was in hospital, when, as he had diet more 
liberal than his ordinary fare, 6d. a day might be 
stopped. The question of stoppages is a grievance 
to the soldier, who does not hear until he has en- 
listed that the whole of the pay promised him will not 
be at his absolute disposal. 

DANNY DEEVER 

Stanza 1. Files on parade. A file consists of a 
man in the front rank and the man immediately be- 
hind him in the rear rank. Only private soldiers and 
sometimes corporals stand and march in the ranks. 
* Files on parade' is therefore a term applied to the 
common soldier. 

Colour-sergeant. The senior sergeant of an infantry 
company. 

In 'ollozv square. The soldiers lining the three sides 
of a square and facing inwards. This is the forma- 

27 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

tion adopted on ceremonial occasions such as divine 
service in the open, or when the battalion is called 
out to receive a message from the sovereign or com- 
mander-in-chief, or, as in this case, when a man is 
to be publicly hanged. A soldier who had made 
himself liable to the death penalty in England would 
be handed over to the civil power, but in India or 
on active service would be dealt with by the military 
authorities. 

They've taken of his buttons off and cut his stripes 
away. When a soldier is formally disgraced in the 
army he is brought under guard to a parade at which 
the insignia of his rank as a soldier, such as his regi- 
mental badge, the stripes that he may have been 
entitled to wear on his sleeve, his buttons, etc., are 
cut off. 

Stanza 3. 'Is county and the regiment's disgrace. 
Most of the infantry regiments in the British army 
are recruited from special areas, such as the Lanca- 
shire Fusiliers, the Cheshire Regiment, etc. 

Stanza 4. You can' ear the quickstep play. Before 
a military funeral the band plays appropriate slow 
music, but when it is all over the men are marched 
away to a lively air. 

TOMMY 

Tommy (see note on ' Thomas Atkins/ p. 26). 
Stanza 3. Paradin' in full kit. Drilling in full 
marching order, carrying rifle, bayonet, knapsack, 

28 



AND OTHER VERSES 

great-coat, ammunition-pouches, haversack, water- 
bottle, mess-tin, etc. 

Thin Red Line. The phrase was coined by Dr. 
W. H. Russell, the war correspondent, who applied it 
to the 93rd Highlanders in his account of the battle of 
Balaclava. 

FUZZY-WUZZY 

Stanza 1. Fuzzy-Wuzzy. A nickname applied to 
the Sudanese followers of the Mahdi on account of the 
way that many of them wore their hair — long, frizzled, 
and often bleached with lime to a dirty hay colour. 

Paythan. The Pathans inhabit the mountains on 
the Indian North-West Frontier, and include several 
virile and exceedingly warlike tribes. 

Suakim. A seaport of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 
on the Red Sea. It was the headquarters of the Brit- 
ish and Egyptian troops operating in the eastern 
Sudan against the dervishes under Osman Digna in 



Cat an' banjo. The sort of phrase that a 'Tommy' 
who happens to be a wag coins on the spur of the 
moment. It is possibly suggested by 'Cat and Fid- 
dle/ which is sometimes met with in England as a 
public-house sign. 

Stanza 2. Kyber 'ills. The home of the Pathans 
referred to above, and the scene of much fighting 
during the nineteenth century. 

The Boers knocked us silly. At the battle of Majuba 

29 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

(1881) the excellence of the Boer marksmanship re- 
sulted in a severe defeat for the British forces. 

Irriwaddy chills. The Burman cannot be regarded 
as an heroic enemy, but the Burmese campaign was 
made arduous by the malarial climate of the forest on 
the banks of the Irrawaddy River, in which the Brit- 
ish had to fight. 

Impi. The Zulus, though savages, had a very 
elaborate military organisation. Chaka, a Zulu king 
during the first half of the nineteenth century, divided 
his soldiers into 'impis,' roughly corresponding in size 
to British regiments, and established an extraordi- 
narily high standard of savage military efficiency. In 
1879 a Zulu force practically annihilated the greater 
part of a British column at Isandhlwana. 

Pop. Ginger-beer; hence something very mild and 
innocuous. 

Martinis. The Martini-Henry rifle was in general 
use in the British army from 1871 till 1888, when it 
was abandoned in favour of the Lee-Metford. 

You broke the square. During the expedition 
against the Sudanese in 1884 under Sir G. Graham, 
an action was fought near Tamai in which the British 
troops advanced against the Sudanese in echelon of 
brigade squares. The Sudanese, helped by the un- 
even nature of the ground, broke into the leading 
square and temporarily captured the naval guns. 
See The Light that Failed, chap, ii., for a fine descrip- 
tion of a charge of Sudanese who 'had not learned 

30 



AND OTHER VERSES 

from books that it is impossible for troops in close 
order to attack against breechloading fire/ 

SCREW-GUNS 

Screw-guns are guns used in mountain warfare, 
made in light pieces which can be screwed together 
when the gun is to be used or packed separately on 
the backs of mules for transport. No piece must be 
longer than the length of a mule from neck to rump, 
or weigh more than 255 pounds. The whole gun is 
in five pieces. These can be unloaded, put together, 
and the first round fired within the space of one minute. 
Mules are employed in mountain batteries in prefer- 
ence to horses, as they are more sure-footed. Some 
details of the methods of warfare with screw-guns 
are given by 'the breech-piece mule of number two 
gun of the First Screw Battery' in 'Servants of the 
Queen' (The Jungle Book). 

Stanza 2. Naga. The Nagas live among the hills 
of Upper Assam. They are a primitive people of abo- 
riginal stock, and enthusiastic collectors of the heads 
of plainsmen, which they preserve. To get good 
specimens they will face any risks. If they have not 
time to take the whole head they take the scalp. 
Between 1854 an d 1865 they raided the Indian plains 
nineteen times. 

Looshai. The Lushai live to the south-east of the 
Nagas. Their principal industry is the plunder of 
weaker tribes in Kachar and Burma. 

3* 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

Afreedeeman. The Afridi are one of the most 
powerful Pathan tribes. They are much given to 
brigandage in private life, but in the Indian army 
prove loyal as well as brave, hardy and self-reliant. 
The following piece of history gives an insight into 
the Afridi character. Though professedly Moham- 
medan, they were at one time so irreligious that there 
were no 'mullahs' or priests in the whole tribe. Be- 
coming a laughing stock for this reason among neigh- 
bouring tribes, they invited a mullah from Peshawur 
to do missionary work amongst them. The mullah 
strove to impress upon them the spiritual value of 
pilgrimages to the tombs of holy men. They had 
no shrines of their own to visit, as no Afridi had ever 
been a saint, and they could not visit the shrines of 
their neighbours, for every tribe's hand was against 
them. To overcome the difficulty they turned their 
living priest into a dead saint, and thus obtained the 
shrine they needed. There have been nine British 
campaigns against the Afridis between 1850 and 1909. 

CELLS 

Stanza 1. Button stick. A piece of flat wood, or 
more often metal, cleft down the middle, used by 
soldiers when they polish their buttons. It is placed 
between the button and the cloth, and thus saves the 
latter from being soiled by the metal polish. 

Corporal's Guard. A party of three men under the 
command of a corporal, whose duty it is to parade the 

32 



AND OTHER VERSES 

vicinity of the barracks and arrest drunken or riotous 
soldiers. 

Clink. Regimental lock-up, in which prisoners are 
confined while awaiting sentence. The name is de- 
rived from that of a prison which used to be in South- 
wark. 

Pack-drill. Drilling in full marching order, carry- 
ing rifle, knapsack, great-coat, etc. 

C. B. Confinement to barracks. During the pe- 
riod of confinement the defaulter is not allowed to visit 
the canteen (regimental beer shop). He must answer 
to his name at the guard-room whenever the default- 
er's call is sounded, attend all parades, and perform 
any fatigue duty assigned to him. The most un- 
pleasant fatigue duties are usually performed by 
defaulters. 

Stanza 2. A dose of gin. Gin mixed with beer 
makes a compound named 'Dog's Nose' that is far 
more intoxicating than either taken alone. 

Stanza 3 . Stripes. At the end of two years' ser- 
vice a soldier is granted the privilege of wearing a 
good conduct stripe, which carries extra pay, if dur- 
ing that time he has not committed any serious 
offence. After five years' service he gets a second 
stripe, and he may possibly get more if he serve long 
enough. The stripes are forfeited by serious, bad 
conduct. The offence in this case is not so much the 
drunkenness as having 'resisted the guard.' 

Stanza 4. Ord'ly room. The Orderly Room. The 

33 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

office of the commanding officer who will try the case 
and award the punishment. 

GUNGA DIN 

Stanza i. Bhisti. Water-carrier. The 'bhisti' 
must not be confounded with the 'pani wallah,' who 
performs for Hindoos the service that the 'bhisti' 
performs for Mohammedans. The 'pani wallah' 
must always be a Brahman, so that Hindoos of all 
castes can accept water from him. The Mohamme- 
dan water-carrier is usually a very cheerful, obliging 
fellow, ready to turn his hand to any kind of camp 
work. The word 'bhisti' literally means 'heavenly 
one.' It is applied to him partly in chaff, partly in 
recognition of the value of his services in the hour of 
sore need. 

Stanza 2. Goatskin water-bag. In the East from 
time immemorial water-carriers have carried their 
water in leather bags. In the Indian army goatskin is 
the material of which the bag must be made, as 
Mohammedans could not drink from a bag made of 
pigskin, and Hindu religious prejudice would be 
offended by the use of calf-skin. 

Stanza 3. 'E didn't seem to know the use of fear. 
It is difficult for those who have never heard shots 
fired in anger to realise the high degree of courage 
required in non-combatants on a battlefield. The 
soldier who is shot at has the satisfaction of shooting 
back at his enemy, but the non-combatant, such as 

34 



AND OTHER VERSES 

the water-carrier or stretcher-bearer, is denied this 
relief to his feelings. The courage of the Indian 
'bhisti' has become proverbial: at the siege of Delhi 
a bhisti named Juma, attached to the Queen's Own 
Corps of Guides, so distinguished himself for heroism 
during the performance of his duty that he received 
the star 'For Valour,' till recently the highest dis- 
tinction that an Indian soldier could earn. In addi- 
tion to this the men of the Guides petitioned that he 
should be allowed to join their ranks as a regular 
soldier. This was an extreme tribute to Juma's brav- 
ery, for the Guides are men of rank and position, and 
the social position of a bhisti is very low. Juma 
enlisted, became a commissioned officer, and again 
won the reward ' For Valour.' 

Nut. Head. 

Right flank rear. Behind the right hand side of the 
company to which he is attached. 

Stanza 5. Dooli. A litter of canvas suspended 
from a wooden frame, in which the wounded are 
carried off the battlefield. 

Canteen. Regimental beer shop. 

Szvig. Drink. 

OONTS 

Stanza 1. Penk. Beat feebly. 
Commissariat camel, a camel used for the transport 
of food, etc., required by a column on the march. 
Stanza 2. Native follower. A regiment on the 

35 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

march in India has an exceptionally large number of 
camp-followers. The reason for this is primarily 
because it is necessary to allow soldiers in the native 
regiments to be attended by servants who perform for 
them necessary camp duties from which they them- 
selves are precluded by religious prejudices. The 
climate makes it advisable to lighten the duties of 
the British soldier as far as possible, and, moreover, 
as the native soldiers are allowed to have servants, it 
would lower the prestige of the sovereign race if 
British soldiers were made to perform menial camp 
duties from which the native soldiers are exempted. 
Both British and native regiments, therefore, are 
attended by a large number of camp-followers. These 
are of three classes. Private camp-followers — officers' 
personal attendants, grooms, etc. — who are paid and 
rationed by their masters ; regimental camp-followers 
— cooks, sweepers, water-carriers, etc.; and lastly, 
stretcher-bearers, mule-drivers, etc., paid and rationed 
by government. 

Paythans. Pathans, Afghan inhabitants of the 
mountains on the North- West Frontier. 

Socks. Whack, beat. 

Stanza 3 . 'E's blocked the whole division from the 
rear-guard to the front. The mountain roads on the 
Indian North- West Frontier are very narrow, and, as 
fate would naturally arrange that a camel should 
choose the narrowest part in which to lie down, one 
beast could easily render a road temporarily im- 

36 



AND OTHER VERSES 

passable. For a description of the confusion caused 
to a column on the march by a blocked road, see 
'My Lord the Elephant' {Many Inventions). 

Stanza 4. 'E'll gall an chafe. Get sores under 
his girths and saddle. 

LOOT 

Stanza 1. 'Aversack. The haversack is a canvas 
bag in which a soldier carries such odds and ends as 
knife, fork, spoon, an oil-rag for cleaning his rifle, soap, 
razor, and one day's ration of biscuits. These last 
absorb a unique flavour from contact with the soap 
and oil-rag. 

Clobber. Clothes. 

Loot. A Hindustani word, meaning plunder, that 
has now become English. Looting is forbidden to the 
British soldier, but it is occasionally winked at by 
indulgent officers, who know that what the soldier 
leaves will very likely be plundered by the riff-raff that 
follow a column for the sake of what they may find. 
On one occasion, during the South African war, an 
officer whose duty it was to search a farm-house en- 
deavoured not to see that his men busied themselves 
in catching the fowls. One soldier, however, chasing 
a hen round the corner of the house ran into his officer 
with such violence that the latter could not ignore the 
matter. He charged the soldier with intending to 
steal the hen, but Tommy hotly denied it and ex- 
plained, 'That's a very vicious fowl, sir, and he'd 

37 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

have pecked you in another minute if I hadn't headed 
him off!' 

Stanza 3. Cleanin-rod. A steel rod used for 
pushing the oil-rag through the muzzle of a rifle. 

Baynick. Cockney pronunciation of bayonet. 

Stanza 5. A quartermaster is a non-combatant 
honorary commissioned officer, whose duties are prac- 
tically those of a housekeeper to his regiment. In 
barracks he assigns the men their quarters. On ser- 
vice he arranges the laying out of the camp, and in 
general he looks after the stores of food, forage, cloth- 
ing, ammunition, etc. A quartermaster is usually a 
man of long service and ability who has risen from the 
ranks. 

The Widow. The late Queen Victoria was thus 
affectionately referred to by her soldiers. 

Mess-tin. A utensil in two parts, body and lid, 
that serves various purposes, such as soup-plate, tea- 
cup, and frying-pan. On the march the day's ration 
of meat is carried in it. 

'SNARLEYOW 

Stanza 1. The corps which is first among the 
women an amazin first in war. The Royal Horse 
Artillery have the privilege of taking up their position 
on the right of the line at reviews and of preceding all 
other corps in marching past, though this proud posi- 
tion was recently at Aldershot yielded to the Army 
Flying Corps. The position of the Horse Artillery in 

38 



AND OTHER VERSES 

the eyes of women is due, perhaps, to the exceptional 
splendour of its uniform, which is almost as glorious 
as that of the Life Guards. 

Twos of -lead. The horse whose position in the 
harness of No. 2 gun was that of leader on the off-side. 
A Horse Artillery gun is drawn by six horses, har- 
nessed in pairs, the near-side horse of each pair being 
ridden by a driver. 

The wheel. The horses harnessed next to the gun. 
When the gun is wheeled they have to do the greatest 
part of the work. 

Bombardier. An Artillery non-commissioned offi- 
cer, ranking below a sergeant. 

Stanza 3. The limber. The front of a gun-car- 
riage, the hinder part being the gun itself. The limber 
consists of two wheels, axle-pole, and ammunition- 
case. When the gun is in action the limber is sepa- 
rated from and drawn up near it. 

Stanza 5. Sections. A battery is divided into 
three sections of two guns each. 

Stanza 7. 'Action front!' The word of command 
given when a battery reaches its ground. The gun- 
carriages are wheeled round so that the muzzles of 
the guns which have been pointing to the rear on the 
march now point towards the enemy. 

Monday head. A headache that follows too riotous 
enjoyment of the Sunday holiday. 

Case. Case-shot, used at close quarters for firing 
'into the brown' of an enemy. It is now super- 

39 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

seded by shrapnel (see note, 'The Jacket/ stanza 2, 
p. 189). 

THE WIDOW AT WINDSOR 

The Widow, an affectionate nickname applied to 
the late Queen Victoria by her soldiers. 

Stanza 1. 'Er nick on the cavalry 'orses. Army 
troop horses are marked and numbered on the near 
fore-foot. 

Stanza 2. The Lodge that we tile, etc. The allu- 
sion is masonic. To tile a Lodge is to guard it against 
the intrusion of unauthorised persons. 

Stanza 3. Bloomin old rag. The Union Jack. 

BELTS 

Stanza 1. Revelly. Reveille, the bugle call sounded 
in the morning as a signal to soldiers to get up. The 
various bugle calls have been set to words, not always 
seemly, that have become traditional in the army. 
The words set to the reveille call are, 'Rise — soldiers 
— rise — and put — your trou — sers on.' 

They called us 'Delhi Rebels ,' an we answered 
' Threes About.' A reference to an old regimental 
quarrel. 

Stanza 4. Liffey, the river that flows through 
Dublin. 

Stanza 5. Side-arm. Bayonet. 

Stanza 7. Clink. The cells in which a prisoner 
awaits trial. 

40 



AND OTHER VERSES 

THE YOUNG BRITISH SOLDIER 

Stanza 2. You shut up your rag-box. 'Hold your 
tongue'; rag = tongue. 

Stanza 4. Go on the shout. Treat comrades to 
drink. 'To shout' is to pay for a drink for some one 
else. 

Stanza 6. Fatigue. Various forms of work which 
a soldier is liable to be called upon to perform outside 
the ordinary round of such duties as drill, mounting 
guard, cleaning stables, etc., are called 'fatigue' du- 
ties. These include such work as carrying coals, 
scrubbing barrack-room floors, unloading forage-wag- 
gons, etc. Men are chosen for the regular duties, 
such as guard-mounting, in rotation, but the sergeant 
warns as many men for fatigues as he thinks necessary, 
and is apt to give more than a fair share of work to a 
slacker. 

Stanza 7. // you must marry. When a soldier 
marries by permission of the authorities he must have 
not less than seven years' service and two good- 
conduct badges to his credit. He must produce proof 
that he has at least £5, and satisfy his commanding 
officer that his wife is respectable. He will then be 
allowed quarters or lodging allowance, free medical 
attendance for wife and family, free transport when 
the regiment moves, and he will have an allowance 
in lieu of rations, fuel, light, etc. If his duties re- 
quire him to leave his wife for a time, he will also 

41 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

have separation allowance. His wife will be per- 
mitted to earn money by washing in the regimental 
laundry for a proportion of men in her husband's com- 
pany or squadron. Three per cent, of infantry men, 
four per cent, of cavalry and artillery, and fifty per 
cent, of the sergeants are allowed to marry. A man 
who marries without leave, and is thus unable to get 
his wife ' on the strength' of the regiment, is in a mis- 
erable position, as his expenses are heavier than they 
would be in civilian life, and he has less money with 
which to meet them. 

Stanza 10. Martini. Martini-Henry rifle, in use 
in the army from 1871 till 1888. 

Stanza 1 1 . When shaking their bustles. The lim- 
ber or forepart of a gun-carriage is attached to the 
gun itself only by a shackle, which allows considerable 
play. When, therefore, the gun-carriage is drawn 
over rough ground the gun bumps along behind, shak- 
ing from side to side very much as a bustle must have 
done if the wearer of one had ever been indiscreet 
enough to run in the days when they were worn. 

Stanza 12. Open Order. Spread out so as to af- 
ford the enemy the least possible target. 

MANDALAY 

Stanza 1. The old Flotilla. The steamers of the 
Irrawaddy Flotilla Company. 

An the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 
'crost the Bay! This line has been sometimes mis- 

42 



AND OTHER VERSES 

understood by those who do not realise that it is on 
the road to Mandalay that the dawn comes up across 
the bay (the Bay of Bengal). 

For a vivid description of the charm of Burma and 
the Burmese, see Rudyard Kipling's personal narra- 
tive in From Sea to Sea. 

TROOPIN' 

Stanza i. A Fourp'ny bit. The fourpence a day 
paid to men when they are transferred to the Army 
reserve at the expiration of their period of service with 
the colours. 

Stanza 2. The Malabar s in 'arbour with the J win- 
ner at y er tail. The Indian Government formerly 
possessed a fleet of six troopships, named the Malabar ; 
Jumna, Orontes, Euphrates, Serapis, and Crocodile. 
The Serapis is mentioned in 'The Madness of Private 
Ortheris ' {Plain Tales from the Hills) . 

Stanza 4. New drafs. Drafts of new recruits 
forwarded from the depots in England. 

THE WIDOW'S PARTY 

Stanza 1. Lay. Cockney slang for a trade or oc- 
cupation of any sort. A pickpocket, for instance, 
who decided to try his hand at burglary might say 
that he would 'have a shot at a new lay,' or if he pre- 
ferred to stay in his former profession he might tell 
a pal that he was 'still on the same old lay/ 

Gosport. A fortified seaport on the shores of Ports- 

43 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

mouth harbour, used to a great extent as a naval and 
military depot. 

Stanza 3. What did you do for knives and forks? 
A reference to the regulation side-arms — that is, 
swords and bayonets. 

Stanza 4. Mess. For convenience in the issue of 
rations the members of a company or troop are divided 
into different 'messes/ Food is issued in bulk to the 
representative of a mess, who carries it away for the 
members of his mess to divide among themselves. 

Stanza 5. In India the work of carrying the 
wounded off the field of battle is performed by natives. 
The wounded are placed in canvas litters called 
* doolies.' 

FORD O' KABUL RIVER 

These verses are founded on an accident that oc- 
curred to a squadron of British cavalry while fording 
the Kabul River during the Afghan War of 1879. 

GENTLEMEN-RANKERS 

Stanza 1. Machinely crammed. Educated more 
with a view to the successful passing of examinations 
than to the understanding on broad lines of the sub- 
ject learned. 

Stanza 2. Stables. The daily duty in a cavalry 
regiment of grooming and feeding horses and cleaning 
out the stables. 

Kitchen slops. The daily routine of barrack life 

44 



AND OTHER VERSES 

necessarily includes work that in private households 
is performed by domestic servants. Such work, of 
course, is extremely repugnant to a man who has been 
reared amid comfortable surroundings. 

Rider. In each troop one man, who must be an 
expert horseman, is charged with the duty of taming 
refractory horses. He wears as a badge a spur worked 
in worsted on his sleeve. The rough-rider's rank 
does not entitle him to employ a servant, a privilege 
which is reserved for those above the rank of sergeant, 
but there is nothing in the Regulations to prevent his 
making a private arrangement with a comrade of his 
own rank to clean his boots and perform other menial 
services for him. 

Stanza 4. The Curse of Reuben. When Jacob was 
on his deathbed he said to his eldest son, Reuben, 
'Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel/ see Genesis, 
xlix. 4. 

ROUTE MARCHIN' 

Stanza 1. Marchin .on relief . Regiments in India 
are not kept long at one station. When one regiment 
moves out of a station and another comes to take its 
place, the latter is said to relieve the former. 

Grand Trunk Road. One of the most famous high- 
ways in the world. It runs right across northern 
India from Calcutta to Peshawur. It is supposed to 
have been begun by Sher Shah, the Afghan usurper, 
who ruled Bengal before the Moguls. The Mogul 

45 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

emperors improved it. It is shaded by avenues of 
trees, and there are wells and rest-houses at frequent 
intervals along its length, and a camping-ground for 
the use of troops at every ten miles. Every year a 
third of the area of each camping-ground is ploughed 
up so as to keep the soil wholesome. For a descrip- 
tion of the varied life on this great highway see Kim. 

Stanza 2. A rifle-sling. A band of white leather 
with which the rifle may be hung from the shoulder. 

Stanza 3. Revelly. Reveille, the bugle call with 
which a camp is aroused in the morning (see note, 
'Belts/ stanza 1, p. 40). 

Stanza 4. Open order. On first leaving camp 
soldiers have to march at attention, their rifles at the 
slope on the left shoulder. Soon afterwards, at the 
word ' open order/ discipline is relaxed, the men may 
talk or sing and carry their rifles as they please, 
moving them from hand to hand or shoulder to 
shoulder, so that no one set of muscles gets un- 
necessarily tired. 

Stanza 6. Rookies. Recruits. 

If your 'eels are blistered. It is of the utmost im- 
portance that a foot-soldier should learn to take care 
of his feet. Parades are frequently ordered for 'foot 
inspection/ at which every man must take off his 
boots and socks and submit his feet for examination, 
lest neglected corns, blisters, etc., should lame him. 
A man who cannot march cannot fight. 

Stanza 7. Injias coral strand. A quotation from 

46 



AND OTHER VERSES 

the well-known hymn 'From Greenland's Icy Moun- 
tains/ by Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta from 
1823 to 1826. 

SHILLIN' A DAY 

Stanza 1. Revelly. The first bugle call of the day 
(see 'Belts/ stanza 1, p. 40). 

Birr to Bareilly, etc. Birr is in King's County, 
Ireland, Bareilly in the Rohilkhand division of the 
Indian United Provinces, and Leeds in Yorkshire. 
Lahore is the capital of the Punjab. Hong Kong is 
the easternmost military outpost of the British 
Empire. Peshawur is the capital of the Indian North- 
West Frontier Province. Lucknow is the headquar- 
ters of the 8th division of the northern army in India. 
Etawah, in the Agra division of the United Provinces 
of India, has ceased to be a military station, and only 
long-service men could boast of having been stationed 
there. 

All ending in 'pore.' The Sanskrit pur a, 'a town, 
city, or village,' is found in more or less its original 
form in several Indian languages, e. g. Bi)3.pur, Ber- 
hampore, Punderpoor, Avanoor, Tanjor*?, Trichino- 
poly, etc. The Greek polls, 'a city/ probably comes 
from the same root. 

Cast from the Service. Invalided as being no longer 
fit for duty. 

Stanza 2. Ghazi. The name given to Mohamme- 
dan fanatics who have taken a vow to exterminate 

47 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

'unbelievers' with the sword. In action these men 
charge their enemy recklessly, believing that if they 
themselves are killed their souls will immediately be 
carried to Paradise. A charge by Ghazi fanatics is 
described in 'The Drums of the Fore and Aft' {Wee 
Willie Winkie) . 

Commissairin . Serving as a commissionaire or 
messenger. The Corps of Commissionaires was 
founded in 1859 by Captain Sir Edward Walter, 
K. C. B., with the intention of providing occupation 
for old soldiers who were unfit for heavy work. The 
fact that long service with the colours tends to inca- 
pacitate a man for any decently paid civil occupation 
is one of the main reasons why men do not care to 
enlist. It is a tragedy that many men of excellent 
character and intelligence, who have served their 
country well, can find no more dignified occupation 
on leaving the service than the opening and shutting 
of a hotel or restaurant door, or should be obliged to 
compete against small boys for posts as messengers. 
It is constantly urged that such posts as those of door- 
keepers, etc., in the government offices should be 
reserved for ex-soldiers, but these posts are too fre- 
quently given to men who have no higher claim on 
their country than having served as butlers, footmen, 
or coachmen to successful politicians. 

Grand Metropold. The names Grand and Metro- 
pole are favourite names for large hotels in the most 
Important English cities and towns. 

48 



AND OTHER VERSES 

THE BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST ( 

Line 8. Turned the calkins upon her feet. Turned 
her shoes round so as to confuse any one attempting to 
follow the mare by her footprints. 

Line 9. The Guides. The Queen's Own Corps of 
Guides, located at Mardan, one of the most famous 
corps in the Indian army. It was raised in 1846 by 
Sir Harry Lumsden by direction of Sir Henry Law- 
rence, who realised the Indian North-West Frontier's 
need — to protect outlying portions of the frontier, 
and to keep the tribesmen in check — of a thoroughly 
mobile force of troops, both horse and foot, composed 
of individuals able not only to fight but to act quickly 
and intelligently on their own initiative in times of 
emergency. It had at first one troop of cavalry and 
two companies of infantry. It has now 1400 men. 
Twenty-seven of its officers are British, the rest na- 
tive. The corps is recruited from among the fighting 
races of the frontier, and in order to provide scouts 
with local knowledge in frontier wars, it alone among 
Indian regiments obtained permission to recruit men 
from beyond the frontier. Afridis, Yusufzai, Pathans, 
Khuttucks, Swats, Sikhs, Punjabi Mohammedans, 
Parsiwans (Afghan Persians), Dogras, Kabulis, Gurk- 
has, Turcomans, etc., serve in its ranks. Some In- 
dian princes and several ex-outlaws have served as 
Guides. The corps is famous for the courage, loyalty, 
and intelligence of its individual members and for its 

49 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

efficiency as a whole. At one time no less than thirty- 
four of its members were entitled to wear the star 
.' For Valour/ until recently the highest reward that 
could be earned by an Indian soldier, and an excep- 
tionally large proportion of its commanding officers 
have met soldiers' deaths. The Guides were the first 
to wear a loose-fitting, workman-like, dust-coloured 
(kharki) uniform instead of the showy and unservice- 
able uniform formerly in favour both in the British 
and the Indian army. 

Line n. Ressaldar. Native captain in an Indian 
cavalry regiment. 

Line 13. Abazai — Bonair. Two frontier dis- 
tricts of the Punjab near the headquarters of the 
Corps of Guides. They are about forty miles 
apart. 

Line 16. The Tongue of J agai. The scene of the 
battle described in 'The Drums of the Fore and Aft* 
{Wee Willie Winkie). 

Line 42. ' 'Tzvas only by favour of mine,' quoth he, 
'ye rode so long alive' The Afghans have the greatest 
admiration for courage. When the Malakand garri- 
son was surprised (July 1897) two officers, Lieutenants 
Rattray and Minchin, were playing polo there. It 
was the duty of these two officers to make the des- 
perate attempt to get back to their station, an outpost 
named Chakdara, seven miles from the Malakand 
garrison. On their way there they met, and (as they 
held steadily on their way) were at the mercy of, the 

50 



AND OTHER VERSES 

insurgent Afghans, who, admiring their pluck, instead 
of attacking them wished them Godspeed. 

Line 82. Peshawur. The city in which is the 
principal military station of the North- West Frontier 
Province. 

Line 86. The wondrous names of God. The real 
name of God is, according to Mohammedan belief, 
known only to prophets and apostles. Whoever 
knows it has power to raise the dead and perform 
other miracles. The Most Great Name of God being 
a secret, He is known by ninety-nine other epithets 
which are revealed in the 7th chapter of the Koran. 
The camel also knows the hundredth secret name of 
God. It was told him as a compensation for the 
hardships of his life on earth. He has never revealed 
it, but preserves a supercilious demeanour on account 
of his knowledge. Look at any camel for the truth 
of this ! 

Line 92. ' To-night' tis a man of the Guides!' The 
Corps of Guides has from time to time admitted out- 
laws to its ranks. The most notable of these was a 
Khuttuck robber named Dilawar, on whose head was 
a price of 1,000 rupees. Sir Harry Lumsden was so 
impressed with this man's enterprise, daring, and 
intimate knowledge of the country, that he sent a 
message inviting him to come under safe conduct to 
the Guides' camp and discuss matters. Dilawar 
came. Lumsden offered to recruit him in the corps, 
promising that if he refused the offer he should be 

Si 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

hanged as soon as he could be fairly caught. Dilawar 
refused, and was, of course, allowed to leave the 
camp. Later he came in and enlisted. Years after- 
wards he confessed that his intention in so doing was 
to learn British methods of warfare and then return 
to brigandage. The integrity of the British so im- 
pressed him, however, that he became a loyal and 
devoted soldier. He rose to the rank of subadar 
(infantry captain). Trained originally for the Mo- 
hammedan priesthood, Dilawar always delighted in 
religious controversies, both with mullahs of his own 
faith and with Christian missionaries. Becoming 
dissatisfied with Islam, he became Christian in 1858, 
twelve years after he had joined the Guides. He died 
of cold and exposure in a mountain pass while on a 
secret and dangerous mission for the Government. 

THE LAST SUTTEE 

By the act of suttee, i. e. sharing her husband's 
funeral pyre, a Hindu widow believes that she not only 
makes atonement for her husband's and her own sins, 
but secures for herself reunion with him in heaven. 

Stanza 1. The Women s wing. The wives of Raj- 
poots are jealously secluded from the sight of all men 
except their nearest relations. 

Stanza 2. Ulzvar sabre and Tonk jezail, 

Mewar headstall and Marwar mail. 
Every Rajpoot prince takes a pride in his armoury, in 
which beautiful and costly swords, matchlocks inlaid 

52 



AND OTHER VERSES 

with mother-of-pearl and gold, rhinoceros-hide shields 
painted and enamelled in gold and silver, buffalo-horn 
bows, spears, daggers, etc., are carefully preserved. 
Ulwar, Tonk, Mewar, and Marwar are all Rajpoot 
States. 

Stanza 3. Boondi — a Rajpoot State described in 
'Letters of Marque' {From Sea to Sea). No Rajpoot 
may marry a woman who is not a Rajpoot. 

Stanza 4. Malwa — a district to the east of Raj- 
putana. Abu — a famous isolated mountain on the 
west of the desert of Rajputana. 

Stanza 7. Nautch-girl — professional dancing-girl. 
Nautch-girls belong to a low class, and instead of be- 
ing secluded in zenanas, as the women's quarters are 
called, go to one house or another as their professional 
services are required. Should, however, a man adopt 
one as his concubine he would seclude her in his house. 

Stanza 10. The Sun-born. Some Rajpoots claim 
descent from a solar race, some from a lunar race, and 
some from a sacred fire once kindled on Mount Abu. 
The royal clans all belong to the military caste and are 
intensely proud of their race. Rajpoot literally means 
son of a rajah. 

Stanza 17. Thakur. A title equivalent to 'lord' 
or 'baron,' from Sanskrit Thakura, 'honourable.' 

THE BALLAD OF THE KING'S MERCY 

Line 1. Abdhur Rahman was Amir of Afghanis- 
tan from 1&80 till 1901. Before reaching the throne 

53 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

he had experienced many vicissitudes and had known 
danger and poverty. (In 'The Amir's Homily' (Life's 
Handicap) Abdhur Rahman tells his court how once 
he had earned money as a coolie.) During his reign 
he did as much for Afghanistan as King Alfred for 
England or Peter the Great for Russia. He ruled 
over a turbulent people who could be held in check 
only by fear. He was never safe from mutiny or 
assassination. His punishments were fiendish, but 
his self-sacrifice was splendid. So preoccupied was 
he with the enormous amount of work which he 
undertook, that he scarcely visited his harem more 
than two or three times in the year, preferring to eat 
and sleep in the room in which he transacted the 
business of the State. Every one in his kingdom had 
access to him. If a petition was sent to him by post 
marked 'Not to be opened by any one except the 
Amir,' no one dared tamper with it. Very often the 
Amir sent an answer in his own handwriting. 

Durani. The dominant tribe in Afghanistan. It 
is pure Afghan stock, claiming direct descent from 
Jeremiah, son of Saul the first king of Israel. 

Line 4. Balkh to Kandahar. Balkh is in the ex- 
treme north and Kandahar in the south of Afghanis- 
tan. 

Line 5. Before the old Peshawur gate. Among the 
Semitic peoples of the East the neighbourhood of city 
gates has from time immemorial been used as meeting- 
places for administration of justice, discussion of pub- 

54 



AND OTHER VERSES 

lie matters, and ordinary gossip. Cf. many references 
in the Old Testament. The theoretical reason for 
administering justice in the city gate is in order to 
afford ready access to all. 

Kurd. The Kurds inhabit the high country that 
separates Asiatic Turkey from Persia. 

Kaffir literally means one who denies — an infidel 
from the Mohammedan point of view. The word is 
in one sense restricted to the pagan inhabitants of the 
Hindoo Kush mountains to the north-east of Afghan- 
istan. In another sense, in which it is used here, it 
means any non-Mohammedan. The Afghans are all 
Mohammedans. 

Line 9. There was a hound of Hindustan had struck 
a Eusufzai. The Eusufzai are Afghan inhabitants of 
the district north and east of Peshawur. As the 
Afghans have for centuries regarded the inhabitants 
of India with contempt, the blow was unforgivable. 

Line 17. Daoud Shah was at one time commander- 
in-chief of the Amir's army. In his autobiography 
Abdhur Rahman stated that Daoud Shah received 
3000 sovereigns for inciting the mob to massacre Sir 
Louis Cavagnari and his party. 

Line 25. Abdhur Rahman, the Durani Chief, to 
the North and the South is sold. An allusion to the idea 
prevalent at the time that Amir Abdhur Rahman in- 
trigued equally with England and Russia. 

Line 26. Ghilzai. A Pathan tribe of mixed Afghan 
and Persian stock. The Ghilzai revolted soon after 

55 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

Abdhur Rahman came to the throne, and at the time 
that this poem was written seemed likely to revolt 
again. 

Line 27. Heratis. People of Herat on the Afghan- 
Persian frontier, which has been ruled alternately, 
according to the fortunes of war, by shah and amir. 
They were always ready to revolt under Abdhur 
Rahman. 

Line 28. Abazai. Part of the country near the 
Malakand Pass inhabited by the Eusufzai tribe. 

Line 51. Sungar. A wall of stones erected to 
afford cover from rifle fire. 

Usbeg. A tribe mostly Turkish in origin, inhabit- 
ing the country to the west of Balkh in Afghanistan 
as well as Bokhara and other parts of Central Asia. 
Abdhur Rahman's bodyguard, when he visited Lord 
Duflerin in 1885, was largely composed of Usbegs 
(see note, 'The Ballad of the King's Jest,' line 78, p. 

58)._ 

Line 52. Zuka Kheyl. The strongest and most 
warlike clan of Afridis of Pathan-Indian stock, oc- 
cupying the vicinity of the Khyber Pass. 

Line 54. ' See that he do not die.' Abdhur Rahman 
displayed much originality in the invention of punish- 
ments. Many of them were sickeningly brutal, and 
most were devised with a certain terrible humour (see 
'The Ballad of the King's Jest' for one of these). 

Line 59. Ramazan. The ninth month of the 
Mohammedan year, throughout which every Moham- 

5* 



AND OTHER VERSES 

medan must fast, abstaining from water as well as 
food, from dawn till sunset of each day. 

THE BALLAD OF THE KING'S JEST 

Line 2. Kafilas — caravans. Some of the Ghilzai 
tribes are almost wholly engaged in the carrying trade 
between India and the northern states of Central Asia. 
For mutual protection against robbers the merchants 
with their families and flocks travel in bands under 
a military organisation. Some caravans will have as 
many as a thousand fighting men, besides women and 
children. As soon as the spring frees the mountain 
passes from snow, they leave their families and flocks 
in a standing camp and come down into India selling 
furs, drugs, shawls, carpets, madder, asafoetida, etc. 
On their return they carry back cotton piece-goods, 
tea, spices, etc. 

Line 18. Fort Jumrood commands the entrance 
from the Indian side of the Khyber Pass. 

Line 37. Hookah. A form of pipe commonly 
used in India, Arabia, Persia, etc., in which the tobacco 
smoke is cooled and purified by passing through 
water. 

Line 43. A grey-coat guard. The Russians are 
called 'greycoats' in contradistinction to British 
'redcoats.' 

Helmund river during part of its length forms the 
boundary between Afghan and Persian Seistan. 

Line 57. Khuttuck. The Khuttuck Pathans are 

57 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

allied to the Afghans in speech and religion but not in 
blood. The full-blooded Afghan's contempt for the 
Khuttuck is due to the fact that the latter have fre- 
quently been raided by the more virile race. Placed 
in a difficult position between Afghanistan and India, 
the Khuttucks have had to hunt with the hare and 
run with the hounds. 

Line 74. In full Durbar. A Durbar may be 
either a stately ceremonial or an ordinary council 
meeting for the discussion of State affairs. 

Line 78. Gholam Hyder, the Red Chief. Gholam 
Hyder Ali, the Amir's Commander-in-Chief, a huge 
red-bearded, blue-eyed man, accompanied the Amir 
on his visit to Lord Dufferin in 1885. In Mr. Kip- 
ling's account of that event he describes Gholam 
Hyder's personal exertions on the platform of Pesha- 
wur station at midnight, when the railway authorities 
were trying to entrain the Amir's Usbeg bodyguard, 
' eight hundred men and eight hundred horses, who 
had never seen a train before.' Gholam Hyder, Mr. 
Kipling asserts, almost threw the horses bodily into 
the trucks. 

Line 81. The face of the king showed dark as 
death. Abdhur Rahman (see note 'The Ballad of the 
King's Mercy,' line 1, p. 53) was a man of extraor- 
dinary self-reliance and little apt to be disturbed by 
bad news. While he was at Rawal Pindi conferring 
with Lord Dufferin, then Viceroy of India, he was in- 
formed that the Russians had invaded his territory 

58 



AND OTHER VERSES 

at Panjdeh. The news of an incident which nearly- 
brought about war between England and Russia was 
received by Abdhur Rahman with perfect equanimity. 
He evidently regarded it as one of those irregularities 
which are bound to occur occasionally on a rough and 
unsettled frontier, too trivial to be noticed by any 
Central Asian ruler who desired to have any peace of 
mind at all. 

Line 105. Mowed — grimaced. 

Line 106. As a sloth. Sloths live for choice 
among trees, usually hanging, body downwards, from 
the branches. 

WITH SCINDIA TO DELHI 

These verses are based on the story of 'Salun the 
Beragun,' written by an orientalized Englishman 
(name unknown) under the nom de plume of ' Mirza 
Moorad Alee Beg,' some thirty years ago. Cf. 
MTntosh Jellaludin's allusion to him in 'To be Filed 
for Reference' {Plain Tales from the Hills). 

Stanza 1. When we went forth to Paniput to battle 
with the Mlech. Many battles have been fought at 
Paniput, near Delhi. The first recorded was in 1300 
b. c, but the one which forms the subject of this poem 
was fought between Mahrattas and Afghans, in 1761. 
The Mahratta Confederacy was then at the height of 
its power. It ruled, or exacted tribute from, the 
whole of India as far north as the Indus and the 
Himalayas, until the Afghan invasion under Ahmed, 

59 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

king of Kabul. The battle of Paniput was waged 
for possession of the Jumna fords. The Afghans, 
though themselves in straits for want of food, evaded 
a pitched battle as long as possible, knowing that the 
more improvident and less hardy Mahrattas were less 
fitted to endure privation than themselves. At last 
the Mahrattas could endure the strain no longer. 
'The cup is now full to the brim and cannot hold 
another drop,' said Sewdasheo Rao, the Bhao, who 
was in command. At night the last of the food was 
distributed, so that each man should have one full 
meal. Next morning the Mahrattas moved out to 
the attack (see also note to stanza 4, p. 61). 

Our hands and scarves were saffron dyed. Knowing 
that they were to die, many of the Mahrattas, to 
indicate that they would accept no quarter, put on the 
saffron robe, disarranged their turbans, and anointed 
their hands and faces with a preparation of yellow 
turmeric. A man who yielded to the foeman after so 
doing would be utterly disgraced. 

Mlech. A term applied by Hindoos to all who are 
not Hindoos. 

Stanza 2. The Mahratta force amounted to 
55,000 horse, 15,000 foot, and 200 cannon, besides 
many Pindharees or irregular troops, who received no 
pay but were allowed to accompany the army on con- 
dition that they shared their loot with the Mahratta 
generals. The Afghan forces with their Rohilla allies 
amounted to 41,800 horse, 38,000 foot, 70 cannon, 

60 " 



AND OTHER VERSES 

and a large number of irregulars. The great cannon 
Zam Zammah, that stands before the doors of the 
museum at Lahore, and on which Kim was sitting 
when he first met his Lama, was captured from the 
Mahrattas at Paniput. 

Damajee was the eldest son of Pilaji Gaekwar. He 
was pledged to maintain 10,000 horse and assist the 
Peishwa (Mahratta hereditary prime minister) when 
called upon. Bhao means literally brother or cou- 
sin. Sewdasheo Chimnajee Bhao was cousin to the 
Peishwa. Mulhar Rao belonged to the Dhangar or 
shepherd caste. He had begun life by herding his 
uncle's flocks, and had risen to power as a military ad- 
venturer. In the events preceding the battle Mulhar 
Rao had tried to run with the hare and hunt with the 
hounds. 

Stanza 3. Bhowani is a war-goddess and wife of 
Siva. Sivaji, founder of the Mahratta power, had a 
sword called Bhowani, which after his death was 
placed in a specially built temple and worshipped 
annually by his descendants. The war goddess's 
spirit was supposed to reside in it. 

Stanza 4. Hills of Khost. Mountains to the 
south-east of Kabul in Afghanistan. 

Rohillas. Pathan allies of the Afghans. 

The Mahrattas charged gallantly, and the Afghan 
leader was obliged to send his personal guards to the 
camp to drive out all who were shirking the battle. 
At a critical moment Wiswas Rao, the Peishwa's son, 

61 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

was killed. Sewdasheo Rao, the Bhao, sent a message 
to Mulhar Rao for help, but immediately afterwards 
descended from his elephant, mounted his Arab 
charger and fled. Mulhar Rao also fled, followed by 
Damajee. Then the whole Mahratta army became 
suddenly demoralised, and the Afghans advancing 
massacred them as they scattered. Only a quarter of 
the Mahratta forces escaped — the number of the slain 
being estimated at two hundred thousand. The 
headless body of the Bhao was found on the field, but 
Damajee and Mulhar Rao escaped. The battle of 
Paniput, by weakening the Mahratta power, furthered 
the British conquest of India. 

Stanza 6. Upsaras are spirits of the clouds and 
waters. They are handmaidens of Indra and dance 
before his throne. When a battle is raging on earth 
they guide to paradise the spirits of those who have 
fallen, whose wives they then become. In Tod's 
Annals of Rajasthan there is a translation of a passage 
in the poems of Chand Bardai which describes the 
Upsaras preparing to receive the souls of the dead 
warriors and incidentally throws an interesting side- 
light on the toilette of an Indian lady of the thirteenth 
century a. d. While the warriors anointed their 
bodies for the battle, the celestial Upsaras with am- 
brosial oils and heavenly perfumes anointed their 
silver forms, tinged their eyelids, and prepared for 
the reception of the heroes. ' The heroes gird on their 
armour, while the heavenly fair deck their persons. 

62 



AND OTHER VERSES 

They place on their heads the helm; these adjust the 
corset. They tighten the girths of the war-steed ; the 
fair of the world of bliss bind on the anklet of bells. 
Nets of steel defend the turban's fold ; they braid their 
hair with golden flowers and gems. The warrior 
polishes his falchion; the fair tints the eyelid. The 
hero sharpens his dagger; the fair paints a heart on 
her forehead. He braces on his ample buckler; she 
places the resplendent orb in her ear. He binds his 
arm with a gauntlet of brass ; she stains her hand with 
the henna. The hero decorates his hand with the 
tiger claw. The Upsara ornaments with rings and 
golden bracelets. The warrior shakes his ponderous 
lance ; the heavenly fair the garland of love to decorate 
those who fall in the battle. The warrior strings his 
bow; the fair assume their killing glances. Once 
more the heroes look to their girths, while the celes- 
tial fair prepare their cars.' 

A Rajput riding to battle wore a wreath on his 
head in preparation for his celestial bridal. 

Other spirits that, according to Hindoo mythology, 
are interested in a battle are the Yoginis who drink 
the blood, and the Palcharas who eat the flesh, of the 
slain. 

Bhagwa Jhanda. The standard of the Mahratta 
Confederacy. 

Stanza 9. Scindia. Mahdaji Scindia was the son 
of a military adventurer who had risen from the post 
of slipper-bearer to the Peishwa to a command in his 

63 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

master's bodyguard. He ultimately became one of 
the leading Mahratta chiefs. He attempted to carry 
on the fight at Paniput after Mulhar Rao had deserted. 

Soobah. Leader of a troop of 625 horsemen. 

Stanza 11. Lalun. In the story 'On the City 
WalP {In Black and White) another Lalun, a member 
of the same ancient profession, sings a 'laonee,' sung 
by this Lalun on the eve of the battle of Paniput. 

Stanza 13. Populzai. One of the clans of the 
Durani Afghans. 

THE DOVE OF DACCA 

Although 'The Dove of Dacca' is not included in 
the English edition of Barrack-Room Ballads, these 
notes are inserted here because the poem follows 
'With Scindia to Delhi' in the Collected Verse of 
Rudyard Kipling. 

Stanza 1 . The thorns have covered the city of Gaur. 
The ancient capital of Central Bengal — long since 
ruined — is in the Maldah district, on a deserted chan- 
nel of the Ganges. Gaur used to be between 20 and 
30 square miles in extent. Now it is covered with 
jungle, and its ruins have been taken stone by stone 
for the building of mosques and palaces in Murshe- 
dabad. 

Stanza 3 . Fire the palace, the fort, and the keep — 
Leave to the foeman no spoil at all. 
On many occasions in Indian history women have 
performed the rite known 2.sjohar, i. e. self-sacrifice to 

64 



AND OTHER VERSES 

avoid capture and rape by a conqueror. In 1294 
a. d. twenty-four thousand women besieged in Jeysul- 
meer perished voluntarily by sword and flame when 
it was realised that the city could no longer be held. 
Their men-folk then performed purification ceremo- 
nies, donned the saffron robe (see note on 'With Scin- 
dia to Delhi,' stanza 1, p. 59), and marched out of the 
city to die. In 1303 the Pathan Emperor besieged 
Chitor in order to capture the famous beauty Pudmini. 
To avoid capture and the dishonour that would in- 
evitably follow Pudmini and all her women, taking 
with them everything of value in the palace, shut 
themselves up in a subterranean room which they 
then set on fire. The rite of johar was most fre- 
quently performed by Rajpoots. 

THE BALLAD OF BOH DA THONE 

A Pretender to Theebaw 's throne. Theebaw, King 
of Upper Burma, came to the throne in 1878, and, 
under the influence of Supi-yaw-lat, his queen, massa- 
cred all such of his relatives — men, women, and chil- 
dren — as he could catch. In so doing he followed the 
example of most of his predecessors, for, as the mon- 
archy in Burma was confined to members of the royal 
family but was not hereditary, each successive king 
on reaching the throne endeavoured to exterminate 
all possible rivals. Such male members of the royal 
family as escaped took to dacoity (brigandage), partly 
for a livelihood and partly in order to have an armed 

65 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

force ready prepared in case events made feasible a 
forcible bid for the throne. 

On 7th November 1885 King Theebaw ordered his 
subjects to drive the British out of Lower Burma, 
which had been a British province since 1867. Seven 
days later the British troops crossed the frontier and 
advanced to Mandalay, captured King Theebaw, and 
sent him a prisoner to Bombay. Theebaw's troops 
had not made any serious attempt to oppose the 
British advance, but had disbanded of their own 
accord and taken to the jungle, where they either 
joined existing bands of dacoits or formed new bands. 
Though none of them any longer had hopes of seizing 
Theebaw's throne, the various dacoit Bohs (captains) 
were disinclined to abandon dacoity, a profession 
which they had found lucrative, adapted to their 
tastes, and — until then — fairly safe. For two years 
the British troops were engaged in freeing the country 
from these dacoit bands. The war was prolonged, 
not by any particular valour on the part of the da- 
coits, but because the thick Burmese jungle makes 
the whole country one vast military obstacle. The da- 
coit gangs seldom stood their ground when attacked, 
and their flight was usually led by their Boh. 'A 
Conference of the Powers' {Many Inventions) and 
'The Taking of Lungtungpen' {Plain Tales from the 
Hills) are stories of the Burmese war. 

V. P. P. The value-payable parcels post, by which 
the value of the goods mailed is collected on delivery 

66 



AND OTHER VERSES 

by the post office. The Indian Government was the 
pioneer in this postal development. 

Senior Gomashta. Accountant in charge of Govern- 
ment bullock train. 

Stanza 2. The Peacock Banner. The Burmese 
national flag. 

Stanza 3 . From the Salween scrub to the Chindzvin 
teak — i. e. right across Burma from south-east to 
north-west. 

Stanza 4. He filled old ladies with kerosene. It 
was the practice of the dacoits to torture their victims 
in order to make them confess where their money was 
hidden, and to mutilate those they killed in order to 
terrorise others. The Burmese are extraordinarily 
callous to the sight of suffering in others, and many 
of the tortures they devised were fiendishly cruel. 

Stanza 10. And his was a Company, seventy strong. 
Owing to the thickness of the jungle and the difficul- 
ties of communication, the operation of large forces 
was impossible. Small flying columns were therefore 
set to patrol districts. The method of operations 
adopted was to surprise villages where dacoits were 
reported to be, and to attack if resistance were offered- 
The Boh usually left his followers to bear the brunt 
of an attack, and fled to recruit a new gang as soon 
as opportunity offered. 

Stanza 33. Babu. (See introductory note, ' What 
Happened,' p. 5.) 

Stanza 52. Blade that twanged on the locking-ring. 
' 67 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

The locking-ring is the portion of the bayonet-joint 
that slips over a projection on the muzzle of the Mar- 
tini when bayonets are fixed. The soldier was guard- 
ing the downward blow of a Burmese dah with his 
lifle and fixed bayonet. 

Stanza 71. Dammer. (See note, 'The Rhyme of 
the Three Captains,' line 27, p. 72.) 

THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER 
CATTLE THIEF 

Stanza 1 . The Bar. A term applied generally to the 
sandy wastes between the different rivers of the Punj ab. 

Shalimar. A village near Lahore. 

Stanza 2. Jezail. A long, heavy match-lock gun, 
usually supported on an iron fork when in use. 

Tulwar. A curved sword, the handle of which is 
often richly decorated. 

Stanza 3. J at. The Jats are a race of farmers 
and cattle-breeders living in the Punjab and Baluchis- 
tan. As peasants they are very hard-working and 
very patient under misfortune. When trained they 
make excellent soldiers. 

Stanza 8. Lowe. Flame. 

Stanza 9. Abazai and Bonair are two mountain 
districts of the Punjab about 40 miles apart across the 
Swat valley. The Khuttucks are a Pathan tribe allied 
to the Afghans in speech and religion but not in blood, 
and have often been raided by the Afridi Pathans. 

Stanza 1 1 . The Zukka Kheyl is the strongest and 

68 



AND OTHER VERSES 

most turbulent clan of the Afridi Pathans (see note, 
'Screw-Guns/ stanza 2, p. 31). They inhabit the 
mountains in the vicinity of the Khyber Pass. 

Stanza 12. And swing me in the skin. The mere 
touch of pig's skin would be considered defilement by 
a Mohammedan. 

THE RHYME OF THE THREE CAPTAINS 

This poem is a contribution to a controversy con- 
ducted in the pages of the Athenceum in 1890 as to the 
treatment of English authors by American publishers. 
Mr. Rudyard Kipling's first contribution to the con- 
troversy was a statement in the Athenceum to the 
effect that a certain firm of American publishers had 
some years before published some of his stories in 
book form without asking his permission or paying 
him for the right to do so. The firm replied that they 
had bought the stories from Mr. Kipling's agent. To 
this Mr. Kipling rejoined that they had bought the 
serial rights only, not the right to publish in book form. 
In this letter he said, 'The real trouble, of course, is 
not with this or that particular picaroon across the 
water. The high seas of literature are unprotected, 
and those who traffic on them must run their chance 

of being plundered. If Messrs had 

not taken my stories, some other long or short firm 
would have done so. Only, a pretentiously moral 
pirate is rather more irritating than the genuine Paul 
Jones. The latter at least does not waste your time 

69 






BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

and ink.' A fortnight later a letter appeared in the 
Athenceum signed by Walter Besant, William Black, 
and Thomas Hardy. Referring to Rudyard Kipling 
as 'a certain author/ these well-known novelists said 
that they could not judge of his case, but that they 
had found the conduct of the firm in question 'just 
and liberal' to the foreign author, whose interests 
'the American law not only fails to protect, but en- 
tirely ignores/ This poem, in which 'the three cap- 
tains' typify the three above-mentioned authors, was 
Rudyard Kipling's rejoinder. The real Paul Jones, 
formerly a slaver, fought in the American Navy dur- 
ing the War of Independence, and harassed British 
shipping in English waters. The accusation brought 
against him by the British that he was a pirate was 
always hotly denied by the Americans. 

Line 3 . Admiral of the North. The scenes of the 
most popular of William Black's novels are laid in 
Scotland. 

Line 4. Lord of the Wessex coast. Thomas Hardy's 
speciality is description of the countryside in 'Wessex' 
— Dorsetshire and Wiltshire. 

Line 5 . Master of the Thames. Walter Besant was 
a great authority on London life and the history of 
London, the Fleet Prison, etc. At the time when this 
poem was written he was Chairman of the Society of 
Authors, a trade-union of writers founded to secure 
legal protection for their work. Although he took in 
this controversy the side of the publisher against the 

70 



AND OTHER VERSES 

author, no man did more than Besant to obtain just 
treatment for authors from English and American 
publishers. (See note on line 88, p. 74.) 

Line 7. In the sheer. From deck to waterline. 

Line 11. Light she rode. She was light in the 
water because she had been robbed of her cargo. 

Line 12. Scuttle-butt. A cask containing drinking 
water kept on deck for general use. 

Line 15. Laccadives. Islands in the Indian Ocean 
formerly infested by Arab pirates. 

Line 16. Tack. Alter the course. 

Prow and junk. The prow is a distinctive type of 
vessel used by Malay seamen, as the junk is the typi- 
cal Chinese craft. Piracy was formerly rife in both 
Chinese and Malayan waters. 

Line 18. Lime-washed Yankee brig. Trans- 
Atlantic slave-ships had to be constantly lime-washed 
for the sake of disinfection. Slavers usually stuck 
to the one evil trade, but as they were fast vessels 
manned by blackguard crews they occasionally in- 
dulged in piracy when safe opportunity offered. 

Line 20. From Sandy Hook to the Nore. Sandy 
Hook is the point from which ships outward bound 
from New York take their departure. The Nore is 
a sandbank at the mouth of the Thames, at the point 
where the river broadens into the estuary. 

Line 21. Rovers' flag. When the pirates dared 
they flew a black or red flag on which a skull and cross 
bones in white was depicted. 

71 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

Line 22. The Gridiron — the flag of the United 
States of America, so called because of the red and 
white stripes that it bears. The Jack — the Union 
Jack, the national flag of Great Britain. 

Line 23. Crimped — pressed. During the Napo- 
leonic wars, British ships were liable to be overhauled 
by British men-of-war on the high seas and compelled 
to surrender a number of their men. Nowadays to 
'crimp' a seaman means to make him drunk or other- 
wise temporarily helpless and put him against his will 
on board an outward bound vessel. 

Line 26. Shaddock. A fruit akin to the grape- 
fruit of the West Indies and Florida. 

Line 27. Dammer. A kind of resin made from a 
pine {Dammara orientalis) that grows in Amboyna 
and the Moluccas. It is used for making varnish and 
for rendering packages water-tight. 

Line 29. Boom. A spar used to extend the foot 
of a mainsail. The boom on any vessel is much 
smaller than the same vessel's foremast. 

Line 30. Yahoo. Contemptible person. The 
word was coined by Swift and applied to an imaginary 
race of men whose intellect and passions were on a 
level with those of the lowest animals. 

Shoe-peg oats. A story is current to the effect that 
an astute American having manufactured a larger 
number of wooden shoe-pegs than he could sell, ran 
the unsaleable stock through a machine which ta- 
pered their ends and sold the result as oats ! 

72 



AND OTHER VERSES 

Line 32. Hulled. Shot him in the hull. 

Line 36. Bilgewater. The water that collects in 
the bilges, the lowest internal part of a ship's hull. It 
is usually foul on account of the rats that have 
drowned in it and for other reasons. 

Line 42. Spitted his crew on the live bamboo. A 
recognised form of torture in China. 

Line 43. Mangroves. Trees that grow in foul- 
smelling tidal mud in the tropics. 

Line 45. Lazar. Leprous, covered with sores 
(derived from Lazarus). 

Line 58. Seventy-three. A vessel carrying seventy- 
three guns, and thus too formidable to be attacked by 
a pirate. 

Line 59. A ship of the Line — a battleship. 

Line 61. Cocos Keys. Low lying islands off the 
north coast of Cuba. The Keys in the Gulf of Mexico 
were the favourite haunt of the buccaneers. 

Line 70. Chaplain of the Fleet. One of Walter 
Besant's novels is so called. Until 1753 many un- 
scrupulous parsons, dwelling within the liberties of 
the Fleet Prison in order to be beyond the reach of 
ordinary law, lived by performing irregular marriages 
without banns or licence for whoever was foolish 
enough to employ them. They were utterly con- 
scienceless, and were ready to degrade any ceremony 
of the Church for a few shillings. 

Line 74. A jury coat is a makeshift coat ; a Joseph's 
coat, besides being a coat of many colours (see Genesis 

73 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

xxxvii. 3), is the name given to an overcoat formerly 
worn by a woman when riding. 

Line 75. Halliards — the cords leading from the 
masthead to the deck by which flags are hoisted. 
The hunting — the flag, so called from the thin worsted 
stuff of which flags are made. 

Line 78. Lascar crew. All Oriental, and espe- 
cially Indian, seamen are called Lascars. 

Lines 79-8 1 . ' Mainsail haul ' and ' Fore sheet free ' 
are two orders given when a ship 'tacks' or is put 
about to run on a new course. 

Line 85. Pluck — heart, liver, and viscera gen- 
erally. Mizzen-truck — the top of the aftermost mast. 

Line 86. Dipsy-lead. Deep-sea lead, used for 
sounding in deep water. 

Line 87. Fore-sheet home. The fore-sheet was 
free (line 81) when the ship was putting about. Now 
that she is sailing on a new tack it is hauled 'home* 
and made fast. 

Line 88. The bezant is hard, ay, and black. A 
punning reference to the names of the three authors — 
Besant, Hardy, and Black — whom the poem attacks. 

Line 89. The Kling and the Orang-Laut (i. e. 
'men of the sea 5 ) are fishermen inhabiting the Malay 
Archipelago. The latter are described by de Barros 
as 'a vile people, living by fishing and robbing/ 
Challong, the amphibious man, in 'The Disturber of 
Traffic' (Many Inventions), was an Orang-Laut. 

Line 92. Dip their flag. Vessels passing each 

74 



AND OTHER VERSES 

other at sea salute by 'dipping' their flag and hauling 
it up again. 

THE BALLAD OF THE 'CLAMPHERDOWN' 

Stanza I. The bleached Marine. Though a ma- 
rine is a soldier enlisted for service at sea, he need not 
be unduly ashamed of being sea-sick, as in point of 
fact he serves a large part of his time on land. 

Stanza 2. Stays. Wire ropes supporting masts 
and funnels. 

Stanchions. Iron bars built into the ship's deck or 
side to support the boat-deck, awnings, etc. 

Stanza 3 . A cruiser light. Cruisers are faster and 
less heavily armoured than battleships. They are 
intended for scouting rather than fighting (see note on 
'Cruisers/ p. 199). 

Hotchkiss gun. A light quick-firing machine gun. 

Stanza 5. Botch. Tinker up. 

Make it so. The customary term in which a naval 
officer assents to a suggestion from a subordinate. 

Stanza 7. The helpless ram. The ram is the 
machine that rams the projectile and charge into the 
gun. At the date when this poem was written it was 
worked by steam, which would fill the turret if the 
ram got out of order. 

The twisted runners. The runners are the steel 
rails on which the gun is turned. 

Stanza 8. Thresher. A kind of shark that attacks 
and sometimes kills whales. 

75 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

Stanza 10. Lie down, lie down, my bold A. B. 
A. B. is the recognised term for a man rated as ' able- 
bodied seaman/ When a seaman first enters the 
navy he is called a 'boy'; he is promoted from that 
rank to ordinary seaman, and then to able or able- 
bodied seaman. He is told to lie down, as otherwise 
the force of the contact when the ships collide will 
knock him down. 'Lie down' is an order that always 
accompanies the order 'prepare to ram.' 

Stanza ii. Nordenfelt. Quick-firing machine gun. 

Stanza 12. We have emptied the bunkers in open 
sea. The coal is exhausted because the Clampherdown 
has been at sea so long without re-coaling. 

Stanza 15. The waist. The middle of the ship. 

Stanza 16. Conning tower. The shot-proof pilot- 
house of a man-of-war. 

THE BALLAD OF THE 'BOLIVAR' 

Stanza 1. The Ratcliffe Road has now disappeared 
from the map of London. It used to run at the back 
of St. Katherine's Docks and the London Docks. It 
was inhabited principally by seamen and the crimps, 
boarding-house keepers and others who lived on sea- 
men. Its reputation was a most unsavoury one. 

Sign away. A seaman hired for a voyage has to 
sign an agreement in the presence of a Board of Trade 
official before sailing. 

The Bay. The Bay of Biscay. 

Stanza 2. Loaded down with rails. Rails are as 

76 



AND OTHER VERSES 

bad a cargo as a ship can carry. It may easily shift 
in bad weather, and should it do so, the work of secur- 
ing it again is highly dangerous. 

The Start. A signal station on the most southerly 
point of Devonshire. 

Stanza 3 . Smokestack white as snow, i. e. by reason 
of encrusted salt left by the spray that has dried there. 

All the coal adrift adeck. For economy's sake most 
tramp steamers outward bound from England carry 
coal enough for both the outward and the homeward 
voyage. As there is not room in the bunkers for so 
large a supply, the balance is carried on deck. Until 
this is used up, it impedes the movements of the crew 
even in fine weather. 

Stanza 4. Coal and fo'c'le short. Short of coal 
and short-handed. 

The Wolf. A lighthouse midway between Lizard 
Point and the Scilly Islands. 

A two-foot list to port. Lying over on her left side. 

Stanza 5. Threshed. Steamed against the wind. 

Stanza 6. Hog and sag. When a ship 'hogs' 
from the strain of the seas, her deck rises amidships 
like a hog's back; to sag is the direct opposite. She 
tends to hog on the crest of a wave, and to sag in the 
hollow between two waves. 

Raced. When by pitching badly a steamer lifts 
her propeller clear of the water it 'races' furiously. 
The vibration thus caused strains every bolt and rivet 
in her hull, and strains the engines severely. 

77 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

Strake. Side. Technically, a strake is one breadth 
of planks or plates forming a continuous strip (or 
streak) from stem to stern. 

Plummer block. The heavy metal box that keeps 
the propeller-shaft in position. If this should work 
seriously loose, the driving power of the propeller 
would wreck the engines. 

Stanza 7. Iron decks are cheaper than wooden 
ones, and are commonly found on tramp steamers. 

Bilges. (See note in 'Andrew's Hymn/ line 22, 

P- 112.) 

Stanza 8. The money paid at Lloyd's. The in- 
surance premium paid by the ship's owners. The 
Bolivar was leaky and was so old that she was not 
worth the expense of keeping in repair. Her owners 
had therefore sent her to sea with a dangerous cargo 
in winter, in the hopes that she would founder and 
enable them to collect the sum for which she was 
insured. (See 'The " Mary Gloster," ' line 18, p. 167.) 

Stanza 9. Took it green. A light wave comes a- 
board in the form of white spray; a heavy one, crashing 
over the side, has a green colour by reason of the light 
shining through it. A wave that is green as it comes 
aboard will throw many tons of water on to the deck. 

Watched the compass chase its tail. A ship's com- 
pass is considerably affected by the ship herself, and 
sometimes by her cargo. While the ship is being 
built the hammering on her iron plates will make 
these to a certain extent magnetic, though the influ- 

78 



AND OTHER VERSES 

ence thus caused tends to decrease as the ship gets 
older. The ship's compass is even affected by the 
position with regard to the equator in which the ship 
was built. In the case of the Bolivar the pounding of 
the seas, causing the ship to vibrate, increases the 
magnetism latent in her cargo of rails, and thus makes 
the Bolivar s compass practically useless. 

Stanza 1 1 . The wheel has gone to hell. The steer- 
ing-gear having smashed, it became necessary to rig 
yokes on the rudder-head and steer with a tackle 
carried to the aft steam-winches, a cumbersome and 
difficult process. 

Stanza 12. Bilbao. A Spanish port on the south 
coast of the Bay of Biscay. It imports rails for the 
network of railways of which it is the centre. 

Euchred. In the game of euchre a player who, 
having had the advantage of declaring what suit shall 
be trumps, fails to score, is said to be euchred. 

Bluffed. (See note, 'The Three Sealers,' line 54, 
p. 127.) 

THE SACRIFICE OF ER-HEB 

The gods mentioned in this poem have no place in 
any particular cult, and the story contained in it is 
based on no particular legend: the incidents recorded, 
however, are such as might happen among almost any 
barbaric people who have attained a certain stage of 
mental culture. Human sacrifice is a feature of most 
primitive religions. It may have a variety of ob- 

79 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

jects. Sometimes a victim is sacrificed merely in 
order that he may carry a direct verbal message to 
the gods, in which case a slave would suffice. Some- 
times he is sacrificed because God, the life-giver, 
must be nourished with life lest his power fail and the 
crops suffer, in which case the victim would have to 
be physically perfect, and would be worshipped as 
divine prior to the sacrifice. In this case Bisesa is 
sacrificed because Taman, the god above all gods, is 
angry at having been neglected and must be propiti- 
ated. The victim therefore must be desirable. 

'By my wealth and love 
And beauty, I am chosen of the God/ 

Before her death they * loosed her hair, as for the 
marriage-feast,' to prepare her for her union with the 
god, Taman. 

She must also be beloved by those who sacrifice her. 
She is the daughter of 'the first of all Er-Heb/ and is 
also 'plighted to the Chief in War.' 

They burned her dower, killed her favourite bull, 
and broke her spinning-wheel, as otherwise she could 
not have taken these with her to the Other World. 

THE GIFT OF THE SEA 

The death-bed observances here referred to belong 
to Yorkshire and other parts of the North Country. 
At the moment of death windows and doors are 

80 



AND OTHER VERSES 

thrown wide open and strict silence is maintained so 
that nothing shall hinder the flight of the soul. Before 
death neighbours come into the death-chamber to 
pray. This observance is called 'The Passing.' The 
most famous of the passing songs is a quaintly beauti- 
ful hymn, usually called the Lyke-Wake Dirge, one 
stanza of which runs: 

'If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon, 

Every night and alle, 
Sit thee down and put them on; 

And Christe receive thy saule.' 

EVARRA AND HIS GODS 

The gods here described have no place in any 
special pantheon, but are such as are commonly made 
and worshipped by the common folk of India. The 
god of 'gold and pearl' might be made by a rich man 
after the likeness of the god or goddess to which his 
family was specially devoted. Indian peasants often 
make idols out of any peculiarly shaped stone, tree, or 
root that takes their fancy as suitable for the purpose. 
They paint and deck these with leaves, and then 
venerate them. It is a general but not universal rule, 
that whoever makes an idol makes it more or less 
after his own image. 

THE CONUNDRUM OF THE WORKSHOPS 

Stanza 6. We have learned to bottle our parents 
twain in the yelk of an addled egg. See the subject of 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

'blastoderms' in any work on embryology, or 'The 
Conversion of Aurelian M'Goggin ' in Plain Tales 
from the Hills. 

THE LEGENDS OF EVIL 

The second of these two poems follows very closely 
a Mohammedan legend recorded by John Lockwood 
Kipling in Beast and Man in India (chap. iv.). In 
consequence of the donkey having introduced the 
devil into the ark, though the fault should obviously 
be ascribed to Hazat Nuh (Noah), the stubborn ani- 
mal's descendants are compelled to bray whenever 
they see the Father of Evil. 

The former poem touches on a common Indian 
belief that monkeys could speak if they chose. Hanu- 
man, the Hindoo monkey god, is thought by many 
scholars to be meant to represent the aboriginal tribes 
of southern India. 

THE ENGLISH FLAG 

On 27th March, 1891, during an important trial of 
Irish political agitators, the court-house at Cork 
caught fire. Political feeling at the time was at fever- 
heat, and the crowds outside the building laughed and 
cheered as the building burned, especially when the 
flagstaff fell with the Union Jack still flying from it. 
The crowd, in the words of the Times correspondent, 
'seemed to see significance in the incident.' If so, 
they must a few days later have been impressed by 

82 



AND OTHER VERSES 

the fact that, when the ruins were examined, the 
flag was found uninjured, though the flagstaff and 
halliards had been destroyed. It had been caught in 
falling in an unburnt angle of the wall. 

Stanza 3. Bergen. A Norwegian port of call for 
the Dundee whalers. 

Disko. An island off the west coast of Green- 
land. 

The Dogger. A shoal off the coast of Northumber- 
land, ranking next to the Newfoundland Banks as a 
fishing-ground for cod. 

Stanza 5. The musk-ox ranges farther north than 
any other land animal except the polar bear. 

Stanza 6. The Virgins. A group of islands, 
mostly British, in the West Indies. 

Sea-egg. The sea-urchin. It may be found at 
any depth from between tide-marks downwards. 
Sea-eggs are often vivid orange, purple, or blue in 
colour. 

Stanza 7. Keys. Low islets or shoals. The word 
is used almost exclusively in the West Indies, where 
it is also spelt 'cays' (from Spanish cayo). 

Stanza 9. The sunfish is a deep-sea fish found 
in all temperate and tropical seas, and seldom seen 
near a coast. In fine weather it comes to the sur- 
face and basks, its dorsal fins standing high above 
water. The albatross, which breeds at the Crossets 
and at Tristan da Cunha, is only seen in the Southern 
Ocean. 

83 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

Stanza 10. Kuriles. A chain of islands between 
Japan and Kamchatka. The name is derived from 
the Russian kurit ('to smoke'), on account of the 
dense fogs which prevail there. 

Praya. A word used in the East for a wharf or 
esplanade. 

Kowloon. A peninsula on the Chinese mainland 
opposite Hong Kong, ceded to Hong Kong in i860. 

Stanza n. Hoogli. The river on which Calcutta 
is built. 'The Hoogli once rose and played with men 
and ships till the Strand Road was littered with the 
raffle and carcasses of big ships' — 'On the Banks of 
the Hoogli' {From Sea to Sea). 

Stanza 13. The wild ass (kiang and onager) and 
the white or snow leopard have their home in the 
mountains of Central Asia. 

Stanza 15. They bellow one to the other, the frighted 
ship-bells toll. During fog steam-driven ships con- 
stantly blow their sirens; sailing ships toll their bells. 

CLEARED 

In 1887 the Times published a series of letters 
which accused C. S. Parnell of being privy to the 
murders in Phoenix Park, Dublin, of Lord Frederick 
Cavendish, Chief Secretary for Ireland, and of 
Thomas Burke, the Permanent Under Secretary. The 
letters also accused Parnell and other Irish Nationalist 
Members of Parliament of inciting men to crime for 
political purposes. As an outcome of the libel suits 

84 



AND OTHER VERSES 

that followed, a Commission was appointed in 1888 to 
inquire into the charges made by the Times. The 
Commission reported that some of the charges, in- 
cluding the main one, were false, some true, and 
some not proved. 

Stanza 3. The surgeons knife. Cavendish and 
Burke were murdered with amputating knives. The 
latter had obtained information of an important 
political conspiracy that had murder for its ob- 
ject. The Commission acquitted Parnell and the 
other respondents of insincerity in denouncing the 
murders. 

Burk — stifle. The word is derived from the name 
of a murderer, executed at Edinburgh in 1829, who 
smothered many victims in order to sell their corpses 
for purposes of dissection. 

Stanza 5. Moonlighters were men who committed 
outrages with the object of terrorising those who did 
not support their political agitation. The Commis- 
sion reported that the charge that the respondents 
made payments for the purpose of inciting to crime 
was not proved, but that they did pay for the defence 
of criminals and for the support of criminals' families, 
and compensated men who had been injured while 
committing crimes. 

Stanza 6. They only said 'intimidate,' and talked 
and went away. The Commission reported that the 
respondents did not incite to crime but incited to 
intimidation, and that the consequence of that in- 

85 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

citement was that crime and outrage were committed 
by the persons incited. 

Stanza 8. They only took the Judas-gold from 
Fenians out of jail. The Commission reported that 
the respondents did accept subscriptions from a 
known advocate of crime and of the use of dynamite, 
and also took money from the Clan-na-Gael, an 
American-Irish Fenian organisation. 

Stanza n. Tups. Rams. 

Stanza 16. Than take a seat in Parliament by 
fellow-felons cheered. Parnell was cheered when he 
first took his seat in the House of Commons after the 
Report of the Commission. 

Stanza 17. You that 'lost' the League accounts. 
The Commission inquired into the receipts and pay- 
ments of the Land League, a political organisation 
with which many of the respondents were concerned. 
It was found that over £100,000 of its expenditure 
was unaccounted for. 

AN IMPERIAL RESCRIPT 

On 4th February, 1890, the German Emperor issued 
a rescript to 'those Powers that dominate the world's 
market/ in which he proposed a conference 'with a 
view to coming to an understanding as to the possi- 
bility of complying with the wants and wishes of 
labourers as manifested by them during recent strikes.' 
The project was generally received with sympathy, 
though many regarded the rescript as a trick to ap- 



AND OTHER VERSES 

pease the German Social Democratic party and thus 
influence impending elections in Germany. The Em- 
peror had expressed a hope that means would be 
found of forcing the conference's recommendations on 
the world at large, but this sanguine hope was aban- 
doned even before its first meeting. After sitting for 
a fortnight and passing some resolutions as to the 
restriction of Sunday labour and the employment of 
women and children, the conference dissolved. 

TOMLINSON 

Line 22. A Prince in Muscovy. Leo Tolstoy passed 
through many phases of religious thought and finally 
evolved a religion of his own, which he sought to prop- 
agate by means of his books and by his manner of life. 

Line 30. A carl in Norroway. Henrik Ibsen was 
remarkable for his candid and clear delineation of 
human society and his power of showing the soul at 
war with circumstance. Tolstoy declared that he 
wrote books for the healing of nations. Ibsen, on the 
other hand, diagnosed the moral diseases that affect 
society without suggesting any remedy. 

Line 49. O'er-sib. Too closely related. 

Line 74. And this I ha got from a Belgian book 
on the word of a dead French lord. The Marquis de 
Sade, a writer of licentious novels of a peculiarly offen- 
sive type. 

Line 85. Empusa, in Greek mythology, was a 
goblin in the service of Hecate, Queen of Hell. 

87 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

THE LONG TRAIL 

(L'ENVOI) 

Stanza 2. The Tents of Shem. Noah blessed Jap- 
heth (from whom, according to the old school of 
ethnologists, the European races are descended) by 
promising that he should 'dwell in the tents of Shem' 
and have Canaan (the reputed ancestor of the negro 
races) for his servant. See Genesis ix. 27. 

Stanza 3. The Golden Gate . The entrance to San 
Francisco harbour. 

Bluffs. (See note, ' Rhyme of the Three Sealers,' 
line 54, p. 127.) 

Stanza 4. A beam-sea is a swell parallel to a ship's 
course. Such a swell causes a ship to roll. She will 
pitch when the course of the swell is at right angles to 
her own course. 

A tramp steamer is a cargo steamer that, unlike a 
liner, is not confined to a trade between a definite 
series of ports, but tramps the sea picking up a cargo 
wherever she can. 

With her load-line over her hatch. The load-line is 
the Plimsoll mark, a line on a ship's side to mark the 
depth to which her proper cargo causes her to sink. 
A ship's hatch, the opening to her hold, is above the 
level of the deck. As the load-line is normally at or 
just above the water-line, a roll that brings it above 
the level of the hatch would occur only in a very 
heavy sea. 



AND OTHER VERSES 

Dago. The seaman recognises three classes of races 
apart from British and American — Dutchmen, Da- 
goes, and niggers. All Teutonic and Slavonic races 
are lumped together as Dutchmen or 'square-heads.' 
Frenchmen, Spaniards, Italians, and all Levantines 
are Dagoes. The remainder of the races of the world 
are classed as niggers. Dago is a corruption of the 
common Spanish and Portuguese name 'Diego/ 

Stanza 5. 

There be triple ways to take, of the eagle or the 

snake, 
Or the way of a man with a maid. 
Cf. Proverbs xxx. 18 and 19: 'There be three things 
which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I 
know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the 
way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in 
the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a 
maid.' 

The North-east Trade. The wind that blows regu- 
larly from 35 north of the equator to 3°N. South of 
the equator the direction of the trade wind is south- 
east. 

Racing screw. (See note, ' Ballad of the " Bolivar ", ' 
stanza 6, p. 77.) 

Ships it green. (See note, ' Ballad of the " Bolivar", ' 
stanza 9, p. 78.) 

'Scends. Drops down the slope of a wave that has 
passed. 

Stanza 6. This stanza describes the last moments 

89 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

at the wharf side of a vessel that is on the point of 
departure. The Blue Peter, a blue flag with a white 
square in the centre, is hoisted at the foremast head to 
notify all concerned that the ship is about to sail. 
The funnels quiver with the pressure of the as-yet- 
unused steam that from time to time must be let off 
through the safety-valve. The last crates of cargo 
are taken on board. Then the gang-planks by which 
passengers have come aboard are hoisted up and in. 
The ship is warped through the dock gates. The 
second mate, at the stern, signals 'all clear aft,' i. e. 
that all hawsers have been cast off and the last con- 
nection with the land has been severed. 

Fenders. Bundles of rope or baulks of timber sus- 
pended from the ship's rails to protect her side from 
contact with the wharf. 

Derricks. Spars that serve the purpose of cranes 
to lift cargo from the wharf and lower it into the 
ship's hold. 

Tackle. The rope suspended from a pulley at the 
head of the derrick. It has a hook at the lower end to 
catch the slings in which the crates are placed. 

The jail rope. The other end of the rope which 
passes from the pulley to the winch which supplies the 
hoisting power. 

Sheave. The wheel of the pulley over which the 
fall rope runs. 

Hawsers. Heavy rope cables. 

Warp. Move a vessel by hauling on ropes or. 

90 



AND OTHER VERSES 

hawsers attached to some fixed object, such as a buoy, 
an anchor, or a bollard on a wharf. 

Stanza 7. In this stanza, after being delayed by 
river-fog, during which the pilot has to feel his way by 
having a man in the chains to take soundings with the 
lead, the ship passes out of the Thames. The Lower 
Hope is just below Gravesend and Tilbury. It is the 
last reach through which an outward bound vessel will 
pass, for below it the river broadens out into the 
Thames estuary. As soon as the Lower Hope is 
passed the Gunfleet Sands, which skirt the Essex coast 
to the north-east, come into view, and the Mouse, a 
lightship almost in mid-stream, is right ahead. The 
ship passes this, rounds the North Foreland, and 
comes into view of the Gull Light, which is between 
the Goodwin Sands and the coast of Kent. 

Sirens. A ship's steam whistle is ironically called 
a siren, because the noise it makes is exceedingly un- 
musical. It is blown constantly during a fog. Near 
a harbour mouth, in foggy weather, sirens may be 
heard in all directions. 

Lead. A weight attached to a line marked off into 
fathoms with pieces of leather, rag, and twine. The 
lead is dropped overboard by a seaman, who ascer- 
tains the depth by seeing how much line he must pay 
out to allow the lead to reach bottom, and calls out the 
result to the pilot. The ship goes at her slowest speed 
when it is necessary to take soundings. The working 
of the 'dipsy' (i. e. deep-sea) lead is more elaborate. 

91 



BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS 

Stanza 8. The scared whale flukes in flame. Under 
certain conditions the sea gleams with myriad sparks 
of phosphorous wherever it is disturbed, such as where 
the wave rises from the ship's bows, in the white water 
churned up by the propeller, in the wake of the por- 
poises that play about the ship's bows, or in the splash 
made by a whale when in diving it throws its 'flukes' 
— the whaler's name for its tail — into the air. 

Taut with the dew. The effect of moisture on ropes 
is to tighten them. Dew is always heavier at sea than 
on land, and in the tropics heavier than in the tem- 
perate regions. 

Stanza 8. Comb — break. A comber is awave that 
breaks not on a shoal or rock but by its own weight in 
deep water. 

Stanza 9. The Foreland — a point on the coast of 
Kent. The Start — a point on the south coast of 
Devonshire. From the Foreland to the Start is prac- 
tically the whole length of the English Channel. 



92 



The Seven Seas 

TO THE CITY OF BOMBAY 

Stanza 8. 'Mother of cities to me.' Rudyard 
Kipling was born in the city of Bombay, where his 
father, John Lockwood Kipling, the illustrator of Kim 
and The Second Jungle Book, was in charge of the Art 
School. When Rudyard Kipling was ten years old 
his father was appointed curator of the museum at 
Lahore, the museum visited by the Tibetan lama in 
the first chapter of Kim. 

Stanza 10. Touch and remit. Homage is paid by 
native princes in India by the offer of gold mohurs, 
which the Viceroy or his representative merely touches 
as a sign that he accepts the spirit of the tribute. 

A SONG OF THE ENGLISH 

Stanza I . Fair is our lot — goodly is our heritage! 
Cf. Psalm xvi. 7 (Prayer Book version): 'The lot is 
fallen unto me in a fair ground : yea, I have a goodly 
heritage.' 

THE COASTWISE LIGHTS 

Stanza 1. Spindrift. Spray blown from the crests 
of waves. 

93 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Skerry. A rock scarcely large enough to be called 
an island. 

Voe. An inlet or creek, a term used in the Shet- 
lands. 

Stanza 2. Siren. (See note, * The Three-Decker, ' 
stanza 8, p. 165.) 

By day the dipping house-flag and by night the 
rocket's trail. Vessels, not fitted with wireless teleg- 
raphy, who wish their owners to know their position 
signal to some lighthouse that is in telegraphic com- 
munication with the shore; in the day-time by showing 
their house-flag, the recognised flag of their owners, 
and at night-time by coloured rockets. 

Stanza 4. Clippers (see note, 'The Mary Gloster,' 
line 31, p. 168). A clipper under full sail is one of the 
most beautiful sights at sea, and a cargo-tank, or vessel 
in the design of which the utmost possible cargo 
capacity was made the first consideration, is one of 
the least beautiful. 

THE SONG OF THE DEAD 
PRELUDE 

Hide-stripped sledges. When all better food is ex- 
hausted, hide or leather, shredded and soaked, can 
be eaten as a last resource. 

The warrigal. The Australian dingo or wild dog. 

Sere river-courses. Rivers in the Australian in- 
terior run only after heavy rain. For the greater 
part of the year they are nothing better than chains 

94 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

of stagnant ponds, some of which are far apart, and 
between these their beds are as dusty and dry as a 
parade-ground. 

Kloof. African-Dutch for a deep rocky ravine. 

The Barrens. The vast tracks of land in the north 
of Canada where no timber will grow. They are 
ranged by herds of caribou (reindeer) and musk- 
ox. 

Wolverine. An animal of the weasel kind; the 
American glutton or carcajou, found in Arctic Canada. 
It is exceptionally bold and exceptionally cunning. 
It robs traps of the animals snared in them, and robs 
the caches, or stores of food made by hunters. It will 
steal things that are of no possible use to it, and has 
been known to rob a hut of blankets, kettles, axes, 
and knives. 



On the sand-drift — on the veldt-side — in the fern 
scrub. Sand-drifts are a feature of the Australian 
deserts. South African plains are called veldt. The 
fern scrub is found in New Zealand. 

When Drake went down to the Horn. On his famous 
voyage round the world Drake sailed through Ma- 
gellan Straits, but strong winds afterwards blew him 
southwards as far as Cape Horn. His discovery of 
this cape was of immense political importance. If 
the Magellan Straits had been the only gate to the 
Pacific, Spain might have held it for long against all 

95 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

comers, but she could not hold the open sea that 
Drake found beyond the Horn. Drake's voyage was 
far more than a mere privateering expedition, more 
even than a voyage of exploration. It was England's 
refutation of Spain's claim to exclusive rights in the 
Pacific, and an assertion that wherever an English 
keel could float was English water. 

II 

Sheering gull. The flight of a sea-gull is very curi- 
ous. It flies for the most part in broad circles, but 
every now and again suddenly swerves or 'sheers off' 
to one side. 

The Ducies. One of the uttermost outposts of the 
British Empire. They form part of the Paumotu 
Archipelago in the South Pacific, and lie about mid- 
way between New Zealand and South America. 

The Szvin. The Channel by which ships outward 
bound from London reach the North Sea. 

Golden Hind. The ioo-ton galleon, first named the 
Pelican, that served as flagship of the fleet with which 
Drake embarked on his voyage round the world, 
and the only one of his five ships that completed the 
voyage. 

THE DEEP-SEA CABLES 

The wrecks dissolve above us. Ships that founder 
in very deep water are said never to reach the bottom 
of the sea, because the water at great depths, owing 
to the weight above it, has a density greater than 

96 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

that of the materials of which ships are made. They 
hang midway between the surface and the uttermost 
deeps. 

THE SONG OF THE SONS 

From the whine of a dying man, from the snarl of a 

wolf-pack freed, 
• Turn and the world is thine. 
The reference is to the Irish party and to the wan- 
ing political influence of the late W. E. Gladstone. 

THE SONG OF THE CITIES 

Bombay. Royal and Dower Royal. The town of 
Bombay was founded by a king. It passed into 
British hands as part of the dowry of the In- 
fanta Catherine of Portugal on her marriage to 
Charles n. 

Calcutta. The sea-captain. Calcutta was founded 
in 1686 by Job Charnock, a merchant seaman who 
became an 'agent' in the service of the East India 
Company. The town was sacked by Suraj-ud- 
Dowlah in 1756 and held by him until recaptured by 
Clive six months later. It is built on silt thrown up 
by the river Hoogli, and thus typifies foreign dominion 
in Asia — power on an insecure foundation. The site 
of Calcutta was chosen by Charnock for its military 
and commercial rather than its sanitary advantages. 
(For a vivid description of the lack of these see 'The 
City of Dreadful Night' in From Sea to Sea.) The 
Nilghai quotes a song about Charnock in chapter viii. 

97 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

of The Light that Failed. The author of the song is 
unknown. 

Rangoon. Shzve Dagon. (See note, * Buddha at 
Kamakura,' stanza 8, p. 226). 

Hong Kong. Praya. Wharf. The allusion is 
to the typhoons that occasionally sweep the harbour. 

Halifax. Natural advantages and extensive forti- 
fications combine to make Halifax, which has never 
been attacked, one of the strongest positions in the 
British Empire. 

Quebec and Montreal. A whisper rose. The ref- 
erence is to the trouble between the United States 
and England that arose out of the dispute as to the 
boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana. 

Cape Town was founded by the Dutch in 1652, 
captured by the British in 1795, handed over to the 
Bat avian Government in 1803, recaptured by the 
British in 1806, and finally ceded outright to the 
British by Holland in 18 14. The Lion's Head, a spur, 
over 2000 feet high, of Table Mountain, overhangs 
the town. British dominion extends from Cape Town 
northwards to Tanganyika. Had not the territory 
north of Tanganyika, which was ceded by the Congo 
State to Britain, been abandoned to Germany in 
1890, British dominion would now extend without a 
break from Cape Town to Cairo. 

Brisbane. Stirp — family. Suffer a little. A large 
part of Brisbane was destroyed by floods in 1893. 
The whole of Queensland at that time, and for 

98 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

years afterwards, suffered from acute financial de- 
pression. 

Hobart. Mans love first found me; mans hate made 
me Hell. The legend is that Abel Tasman, who dis- 
covered Hobart, had undertaken his voyage for love of 
the daughter of Anthony Van Dieman, governor of 
Batavia. It was first used as a penal settlement for 
the most unmanageable of the convicts from Sydney. 

ENGLAND'S ANSWER 

Draw now the threefold knot firm on the ninefold 
bands. The threefold knot is the Union of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, typified by the rose, thistle, 
and shamrock in the Royal Arms. The ninefold 
bands are (i) Canada, (2) Australia, (3) South Africa, 
(4) New Zealand, (5) India, (6) the West Indies, (7) 
Newfoundland, (8) the Tropical Dependencies in the 
East, and (9) the South Sea Islands. 

This for the waxen Heath, and that for the Wattle- 
bloom, 

This for the Maple-leaf, and that for the southern 
Broom. 
The heath, the wattle, the maple, and the broom are 
characteristic of South Africa, Australia, Canada, and 
New Zealand respectively. 

THE FIRST CHANTEY 

A Chantey is a song sung by sailors while at heavy 
work so that they may haul in unison. Most chanties 

99 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

have been handed down by several generations of 
seamen, but few have been put into print, partly per- 
haps because they are generally crudely constructed, 
but principally because most of them are grossly 
indecent. In chapter viii. of The Light that Failed, 
the 'Nilghai' sings part of one of the respectable ones, 
a chantey that was popular in the Royal Navy in 
Nelson's time, and offers to sing one of the other kind. 
Some others are recorded in Captains Courageous. 
Most of the chanties have a boisterous and some- 
times meaningless chorus. The song 'Frankie's 
Trade,' in Rewards and Fairies, is in the true Chantey 
style. (See also note on the chorus of 'The Mer- 
chantmen,' p. 103.) 

Stanza 1. In the dawn of the world's history a 
man customarily obtained a wife by capturing her 
from a neighbouring clan, if we can judge by customs 
recently surviving among the Australian blacks, the 
Masai, the Dog-rib Indians, and other primitive 
peoples. 

Stanza 3. So far as it is possible to judge, the 
history of the evolution of the boat has been as follows, 
First, the floating log giving support to the swimmer, 
then the canoe hollowed out of a single log, then the 
dug-out canoe with its sides raised by the addition 
of a long plank to break the force of the waves and 
partially prevent their coming aboard, until the 
boat built of planks strake above strake was per- 
fected. 

100 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 7. In Lectures on the Early History of the 
Kingship, Prof. J. G. Fraser has authoritatively shown 
how among primitive peoples men credited with su- 
pernatural powers tend not only to become kingly 
priests but are often regarded as divine. 

THE LAST CHANTEY 

For meaning of Chantey see note, 'The First 
Chantey,' p. 99. 

Rev. xxi. 1 : 'And I saw a new heaven and a new 
earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were 
passed away; and there was no more sea/ 

Stanza 2. Barracoof. The Barracuda is a vora- 
cious perch-like fish in the West Indian seas that 
attains a length of ten feet. 

Stanza 6. Picaroon. It has been suggested that 
in using this word, Rudyard Kipling departed from 
his usual accuracy, and confused the words 'picaroon' 
and 'barracoon.' The latter means a shed in which 
slaves were imprisoned until they could be taken on 
board the slave ships. However, as picaroon means 
a pirate, and has been extended in colloquial lan- 
guage to mean pirate-ship or any ship engaged in an 
allied trade, the use of the word here is perfectly jus- 
tifiable. 

Stanza 7. Once we frapped a ship. To frap a 
ship is to pass turns of a cable round the middle 
of her hull in order to keep her from breaking asunder 
under the weight of the seas. H. M. S. Albion 

101 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

was frapped after the battle of Navarino. Sir Pat- 
rick Spens, an old Scots ballad, describes the frapping 
of a ship : 

'They fetch'd a web o' the silken claith, 
Another o' the twine, 

And they wrapp'd them round that gude ship's side, 
But still the sea came in.' 

Acts xxvii. contains the account of the frapping of the 
ship in which St. Paul was wrecked. 

Stanza 9. The gentlemen-adventurers. The Com- 
panies of Gentlemen Adventurers of the Tudor period 
were the forerunners of the great chartered compa- 
nies, such as the Honourable East India Company, the 
Hudson Bay Company and others, which made the 
British Empire. Their original quarrel with Spain 
arose from their vigorous refusal to recognise Spain's 
right to a monopoly of trade in the New World. 
Thus when Hawkins, representing a syndicate of 
London merchants, first took a cargo of slaves to the 
West Indies, he was debarred from trading by a pro- 
hibitive customs duty, until, by landing a hundred 
armed men, he persuaded the authorities to reduce 
the tariff. The Spanish Government revenged itself 
by confiscating two of his ships that fell into its power. 
Thereafter English trading ventures to America 
became practically piratical expeditions, and conse- 
quently the few English seamen that fell into the 
hands of the Spaniards were sent to the Inquisition 
or the galleys. The dealings of the English with the 

102 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Spaniards were red enough, but the former would 
have hotly denied iniquity. 

Stanza 10. A gray Gothavn ' speck shioner. Got- 
havn is the seat of the government of Northern 
Greenland. The highest official there is an inspector, 
who, besides fulfilling magisterial duties, regulates the 
whaling industry. Dundee is the port from which 
most British whaling vessels sail. 

Flenching. The cutting up of a whale's blubber. 

Ice-blink. A peculiar shimmer in the air reflected 
from distant ice. 

Bowhead. The Greenland whale. Its home is 
among floes and on the borders of the ice-fields, and 
has never been found south of the limits of winter-ice. 

Stanza n. The windless ; glassy floor. Cf. Rev. 
iv. 6: 'And before the throne there was a sea of glass 
like unto crystal.' 

Stanza 13. Spindrift. Spray blown from the 
crests of waves. 

Fulmar. The molly-mawk, the North Atlantic 
species of the petrel. It boldly accompanies whalers 
and seal-fishers for the sake of what offal it can get. 

THE MERCHANTMEN 

Stanza 1. King Solomon drew merchantmen. Cf. 
1 Kings x. 22: 'For the king had at sea a navy of 
Tharshish with the navy of Hiram : once in three years 
came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, 
ivory, and apes, and peacocks'; and 1 Kings v. 8, 9: 

103 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

'And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, . . . I will 
do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar. . . . 
My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon 
unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats 
unto the place that thou shalt appoint.' 

Chorus. Flaw. Sudden unreliable gust of wind 
coming from an unexpected quarter. The trade wind 
is regular both in force and direction. 

Lay your board and tack again. A vessel beating 
against the wind advances on a zig-zag course at 
rather less than a right angle to the direction of the 
wind. When she has sailed as far as is expedient in 
the one direction, she 'tacks' or goes about and sails 
away at an acute angle to her previous course. Her 
1 board' is the stretch she makes on one tack. 

Paddy Doyle. A reference to a well-known chantey. 
In hoisting a sail the work becomes heavier as it pro- 
gresses, and the pulls which the seamen give neces- 
sarily shorter. At the last, when they are finally 
f sweating-up,' they can give only short pulls. For 
these, special chanteys have been adopted. One of 
these is as follows: — 



m 



£=§ 



:fc=qv 



S 



9 



± 



jSfc 



at 



To my way 



ay 




•=t 



:E3=E 



:St 



-M 



We'll pay Pad - dy Doyle for his 
IO4 



boots. 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Mr. W. B. Whall, Master Mariner, who has pre- 
served this in his valuable little book, Ships, Sea 
Songs and Shanties (Brown & Son, Glasgow), says 
that he never heard this particular one used except for 
bunting up a sail in furling. Who the original Paddy 
Doyle was is not recorded ; probably a seaman's out- 
fitter, who allowed some seaman to have a pair of sea- 
boots on credit. Such an event would be sufficiently 
rare to be worth chronicling. Usually an outward- 
bound seaman pays for his kit with an ' advance note' 
that no one but the outfitter will cash, and the out- 
fitter takes good care not to lose on the bargain! 

Stanza 3. And light the rolling homeward bound. 
The pretence that the victim was robbed in her own 
interest because she was dangerously low in the water, 
is typical of the humour of Elizabethan buccaneers. 
In the contemporary narrative of Drake's voyage 
round the world, it is recorded that a party from the 
Golden Hind, landing on the coast of Chili for water, 
met a Spaniard driving a train of eight llamas, each 
carrying a hundred pounds of silver. 'We could not 
endure,' says the chronicler, 'to see a gentleman 
Spaniard turned carrier so, and therefore, without 
entreaty, we offered our services and became drovers: 
only his directions were not so perfect that we could 
keep the way he intended; for almost as soon as he 
had parted from us we were come to our boats.' 

Stanza 4. Walty. Cranky, tottering like a sprung 
spar. 

105 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Kentledge. Pig-iron used as permanent ballast 
laid on the kelson plates and fitted between frames. 

Kelson. A piece of timber in wooden ships (or in 
iron vessels a bar or a combination of iron plates) 
placed on the floor of a ship's interior and parallel 
with the keel, to which it is bolted. 

Slings. The tackle that holds the yard to the mast. 

Galley. Cook-house, in a sailing ship usually a 
small wooden house standing on the deck. 

Boom. A long spar used to extend the foot of the 
aftermost sail or 'spanker' over the stern. 

Mossel Bay. In Cape Colony. 

Stanza 5. Texel. An island to the north of 
Holland. The sea here is shallow, and the swell very 
awkward and choppy. 

Awash with sodden deals. Ships outward bound 
from Baltic ports often carry cargoes of deal planks. 
As these are very light, to get a load the timber-ships 
not only fill their holds but stack planks on their 
decks to a height of ten or twelve feet. In heavy 
weather the seas that come aboard will almost float 
these and set them moving in spite of the stout cables 
with which they are lashed to the body of the ship. 
There is then great danger of the deck-load becoming 
unmanageable. Should it shift a few inches the load 
becomes heavier by many tons on the side towards 
which it has shifted. It is no uncommon thing for a 
timber-laden ship to stagger into port with her scup- 
pers on one side level with the water. 

106 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Norther. (See note, 'The Explorer,' stanza 5, p. 
211.) 

Ratched. Beat against the wind. 

Crossets. An uninhabited group of islands, far 
south in the Indian Ocean. They lie near the course 
of sailing-vessels outward bound to New Zealand. 

Agulhas Roll. All along the coast of South Africa, 
from Cape Agulhas eastward, a heavy swell comes in 
from the Southern Ocean. The suddenness with 
which it rises before a gale is the chief danger of 
that coast (see note 'The Native Born/ stanza 8, 
p. 121). 

Stanza 7. Vane and Truck. The truck is the 
topmost part of the mast, and the vane is the weather- 
cock attached to it. 

The Dutchman. The legend of the Flying Dutch- 
man is that a Dutch navigator named Vanderdecken 
beat about the Cape of Good Hope for nine weeks 
without being able to round it (cf. Marryatt's ' Flying 
Dutchman' in his The Phantom Ship). He blas- 
phemously swore on a relic of the True Cross that he 
would beat to the Day of Judgment rather than give 
in. Ever since, his vessel has been doomed to haunt 
the Southern Ocean. She may be recognised by the 
fact that she always sails, with all sail spread, dead 
against the wind — an impossible feat for a natural 
ship. Vessels that sight her meet with disaster, and 
those rash enough to speak with her are never heard 
of again. 

107 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 8. Bunt. The middle part of a square sail 
which when furled is tossed up on to the centre of the 
yard. 

Gasket. The cord with which the square sail when 
furled is lashed to the yard. 

The Isle of Ghosts is peopled by the spirits of men 
whom pirates murdered and buried with their treasure 
in order that their ghosts might guard it from looters. 
When ships pass the island the restless spirits, hoping 
to be carried to their own homes, board the ship and 
help to work it, but their doom always drags them 
back to the treasure they were set to guard. 

M' ANDREW'S HYMN 

A young marine engineer, known to a friend of the 
writer of these notes, once asked if Rudyard Kipling 
ever delivered lectures on marine engineering sub- 
jects, as he proposed, if that were the case, to miss a 
voyage in order to take advantage of them. It tran- 
spired that he knew nothing of Kipling's fame as an 
author but had read The Days Work, three of the 
stories in which, 'The Ship that Found Herself,' 
'Bread upon the Waters,' and ''007,' show the author's 
intimate and accurate acquaintance with the struc- 
ture both of a ship and a railway engine, and he had 
formed the opinion that Kipling must be a Professor 
of Engineering and that his lectures would be worth 
attending. This testimony to the extraordinary 
range and accuracy of Kipling's knowledge of engi- 

108 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

neering subjects is endorsed by all qualified to give 
an opinion. No attempt will be made in the notes 
on this poem to explain the meaning of such technical 
words as 'crosshead-gibs' or 'follower-bolts.' Such 
explanation would serve no useful purpose, for they 
could not be made intelligible, even with the aid of 
diagrams, to those unacquainted with a ship's engine- 
room, whereas those familiar with marine engines will 
not need them. It should be said, however, that 
wherever he has chosen onomatopoetic words to suit 
the sound made by the various parts of the engines, 
such as 'The crank-throws give the double-bass, the 
feed-pump sobs and heaves,' 'My purrin' dynamos/ 
etc. — Mr. Kipling shows the same uncanny accuracy 
that he displays in all his works, whether they be of 
steam engines, Hindoo customs, sailing ships, or the 
habits of seals. To appreciate the poem thoroughly, 
it should be read in a ship's engine-room when the 
engines are doing their work and under the guidance 
of an engineer who knows them well and has the gift 
of intelligibly explaining their different functions. 
The idea of the poem originated in a personal experi- 
ence of the author's. When it was first published in 
Scribners Magazine for December, 1894, it was pref- 
aced by an extract from a private letter: — 

'And the night we got in, sat up from twelve to four 
with the chief engineer, who could not get to sleep 
either . . . said that the engines made him feel 
quite poetical at times, and told me things about his 

109 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

past life. He seems a pious old bird ; but I wish I had 
known him earlier in the voyage/ 

Line 4. Predestination. The doctrine that God 
has from all eternity unalterably fixed whatever is to 
happen. It was taught (though not originated) by 
Calvin. 

Line 6. My ' Institution M' Andrew means that 
he has learned his faith from his engines. He borrows 
the word from the title of the work [Christianae Re- 
ligionis Institutio) in which Calvin expounded his 
doctrines. M 'Andrew amplifies his meaning in the 
lines (153 to 167) where he speaks of the 'orchestra 
sublime,' in which each component part of his engines 
at its appointed time and in its appointed order does 
its appointed work; in which all the parts are depen- 
dent on all the others and perform a task that has been 
'foreseen, ordained, decreed,' thus teaching the lesson 
of 'Law, Order, Duty and Restraint, Obedience, 
Discipline.' 

Line 9. Race. In bad weather the pitching of the 
ship will occasionally lift the propeller partly or wholly 
out of the water. Being freed from the resistance 
of the heavier element, it will then 'race' at greatly 
increased speed, jarring the whole ship and the en- 
gines in particular. 

Line 13. A full-draught breeze. A steamer's en- 
gines are affected by the direction and force of the 
wind, as a fresh current of air in the stoke-hole enables 
the furnaces to burn freely. 

no 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Ushant out of sight. Well into the English Channel, 
the southern side of the entrance to which is marked 
by the Ushant light. 

Line 15. Seventy — One — Two — Three. Ferguson, 
the engineer, on coming on watch, has increased the 
speed of the engines from seventy to seventy-three 
revolutions of the crank-shaft per minute. 

Line 18. Elsie Campbell. It is the Scotch custom 
to refer to a dead woman by her maiden name — e. g. 
'Mary Moffat, wife of David Livingstone,' is carved 
on Mrs. Livingstone's tomb. 

Line 19. The Year the 'Sarah Sands' was burned. 
In 1857 the Sarah Sands was on her way to India with 
troops. She took fire 1000 miles from land. She 
carried a large quantity of powder, which volunteers 
attempted to get out of the magazine while the rest of 
those on board took to the boats. At the last possible 
moment those in the powder magazine abandoned 
their task and joined the others in the boats. An 
explosion soon afterwards took place, and although 
her afterdeck and a great part of her side were blown 
out, the Sarah Sands did not founder. Those in the 
boats boarded her again and eventually succeeded 
in extinguishing the fire. Then on very short rations, 
and in a badly crippled condition, the Sarah Sands 
was worked to port. 

An account of the disaster was contributed by 
Rudyard Kipling to the 1898 Christmas number of 
Black and White. 

in 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Line 20. Maryhill, Pollokshaws, Govan, and Park- 
head are all on the outskirts of Glasgow. 

Line 22. How's your bilge to-day? The bilges of a 
ship are the parts between the 'floors' (or frames at 
the bottom of a ship, where they are made deep and 
strong to support her weight when docked). Sir 
Kenneth probably meant 'How is your bilge-water ?' 
In his anxiety to bring his conversation down to the 
level of M 'Andrew's intelligence, he has misused an 
expression that itself is more often found in popular 
fiction than heard at sea. 

Line 24. The auld Fleet Engineer. The chief of 
all the engineers employed in the company's ships. 

Line 27. Ten pound was all the pressure then. A 
pressure on the boilers of ten pounds per square inch. 
An idea of the improvement of marine engines during 
M* Andrew's day may be gathered from the fact that 
whereas, when he was a 'boiler-whelp,' it needed from 
seven to nine pounds of coal on the grate to obtain a 
horse-power hour of work, at the present day a cargo 
ship (built for economy rather than speed) can carry a 
ton freight a mile on the heat developed by half an 
ounce of coal on the grate. 

Line 48. Jane Harrigans an Number Nine, The 
Reddick an Grant Road. The places here referred to 
are well known, either from personal experience or by 
repute, to most seamen, but are not mentioned in any 
respectable guide-book. Number Nine, despite its 
English name, is in a Japanese port. A vivid and 

112 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

painful description of Gay Street in Hong Kong is 
given in From Sea to Sea. 

Line 58. The Chief. Though the first mate of 
a ship is often called the 'Chief Officer' especially on 
passenger vessels, the simple title 'the Chief is always 
reserved for the chief engineer. 

Line 59. Sumbawa Head is in the Malay Archi- 
pelago. It appears later in the poem that M 'Andrew, 
at the time of which he is speaking, was on a ship 
whose run lay along the coasts of Sumatra and Java, 
and through the East Indian islands to Queensland, 
passing Deli, Sumbawa, and Torres Straits, and skirt- 
ing the Barrier Reef. Nowhere is the beauty of the 
Tropics greater than on this run. Islands clothed 
with palms and dense vivid green scrub are in sight 
for days together. The air is soft and warm, but not 
too warm, and even the water in the morning-bath 
has somewhat of the 'spicy, garlic smell' of the East. 

Line 65 . Broomielaw is part of the Port of Glasgow, 
a neighbourhood as different from Sumbawa as any 
place on earth. 

Line 66. Fetich. Idol. 

Line 75. The sin against the Holy Ghost? See 
Matthew xii. 24 to 32. 

Line 78. Third on the 'Mary Gloster? The Mary 
Gloster's third engineer. 

Line 82. We dared not run that sea by night. As 
the Barrier Reef is over a thousand miles long, the 
work of surveying and charting it occupied many 

113 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

years. The dangers of this part of the Queensland 
coast were exemplified by the wreck of the Quetta, a 
British India steamer, on an uncharted rock right 
in her usual course. 

Line 83. The hatch is the covering of the opening 
in the deck through which cargo is lowered to the hold. 
It is a favourite place on which to lie in warm weather, 
partly because being covered with tarpaulin it is softer 
than the deck, and partly because any one lying there 
is out of the way of those who need to pass forward or 
aft. 

Line 84. ' Better the sight of eyes that see than wan- 
derin desire!' Cf. Ecclesiastes vi. 9: ' Better is the 
sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire.' 

Lines 99-105. In 'The Mary Gloster' M'Andrew 
is referred to as 'chief of the Maori Line.' The ships 
of both the lines that serve NewZealand from England 
(the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Shaw 
Savill and Albion Company) go outward round the 
Cape and homeward round the Horn. Their course 
for a large part of the voyage lies along little-fre- 
quented sea-lanes. Usually the ships of both lines 
make Hobart a point of call between Cape Town and 
Wellington, and thus traverse a sea-highway part of 
which is used by two other lines (the Lund's Blue 
Anchor Line and Rennie's Aberdeen White Star Line), 
but the route between Cape Town and Wellington 
lies far to the south of most traffic routes — it lies, in 
fact, as close to the Antarctic ice as the captain cares 

114 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

to go. The best chance for any ship disabled on this 
route — and that would be very slender — would be 
to 'speak' (i. e. sight and get into signalling communi- 
cation with) a whaling ship. 

The shaft of a steamer which connects the propeller 
with the engines is its most vital part. Practically 
any other part of the engines could be mended or 
replaced from spare parts carried on board, but the 
welding of so huge a piece of steel as a propeller-shaft 
requires appliances too big to find a place in a ship's 
workshop. A case is on record of a ship's propeller- 
shaft being mended at sea by her own crew, but the 
feat was an exceptional one. The jiggers or small 
sails carried by modern passenger steamers serve 
little purpose except to steady the ship in rough 
weather. Of so little value are they that their use is 
gradually being discarded. A ship that depended 
only on such sails would scarcely move through the 
water at all. An accident to a steamer's shaft forms 
the subject of the story 'Bread upon the Waters' 
{The Day s Work). 

Line 103. Steamin to bell for fourteen days 0' 
snow an floe an blow. The sea being thick with 
floating ice, M 'Andrew would be standing by his 
engines all the time to slow, back, or stop as ordered 
by bell from the bridge. Steaming to bell is a nerve- 
racking performance for all hands. 

Line 104. Kelpies. Water sprites. 

Girn. Snarl. 

US 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Line 106. Hail, Snow an Ice that praise the Lord. 
Cf. the passage in the Benedicite, 'O ye Ice and Snow, 
bless ye the Lord: praise Him and magnify Him for 
ever.' 

Line 112. The tender. The small vessel that 
takes passengers and mails from steamers that have 
reached harbour but are not to lie alongside a wharf. 

Line 119. A snifter-rod 'ross.' The French for 
both nightingale and snifter-rod is rossignol. Prob- 
ably M' Andrew stopped short at 'ross-' from doubts 
how to pronounce the rest of the word. 

Line 121. To lie like stewards wi patty pans. At 
the end of a voyage the chief steward will replace 
whatever material in his department has been lost, 
broken, or worn out. Very often he has an arrange- 
ment with the supplier of these articles by which he 
gives a written order for more than he needs, and tells 
the supplier verbally how much he must actually sell 
him. The supplier and the steward will then share 
the difference between the actual cost of the goods 
supplied and the cost as shown in the steward's 
written order. 

Line 1 24. Clink the fire-bars. Clog the fire-bars 
with 'clinkers' or unburnable refuse from the patent- 
fuel-bricks. 

Line 125. Wangarii. Coal from Wangarti in New 
South Wales, which would be bought in Wellington 
for the homeward run. 

Line 143. Spar-decked yachting-cap. The peaked 

116 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

flat cap that is worn as part of a ship's officer's uniform, 
and therefore adopted by those who, not being profes- 
sional seamen, like to appear nautical. 

Line 147. Manholiri. Creeping through man- 
holes which are only just large enough to be squeezed 
through by a broad-chested man. 

Line 157. Hear that note? A competent engineer 
learns to superintend his engines rather by ear than 
by eye. Anything that needs attention — a loosened 
bolt or a bearing that needs oiling — will declare itself 
by altering the tone or rhythm of the beat of the 
engines. On small ships in which the chief engineer 
takes a watch, it is his privilege to spend his four 
hours, if he so choose, on the deck instead of in 
the engine-room, out of sight of, but within hear- 
ing of, his engines. The average marine engineer 
would be awakened from sleep if the engines began 
to run hard. 

Line 161. To work . . . at any tilt. To work 
at any angle to which they may be brought by the 
pitching or rolling of the ship. 

Line 163. The Mornin Stars. Cf. Job xxxviii. 7: 
'When the morning stars sang together, and all the 
sons of God shouted for joy/ 

Line 165. Not unto us the praise. Cf. Psalm cxv. 
1 (Prayer-Book version) : 'Not unto us, O Lord, not 
unto us, but unto thy Name give the praise.' 

Line 168. Try-pit. The pit in which the engines 
were tested. 

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THE SEVEN SEAS 

Line 170. Trip hammer. Large hammer used in 
ironworks and worked by machinery. 

Line 175. Declarin all things good. Cf. Genesis 
i. 31 : 'And God saw every thing that He had made, 
and, behold, it was very good. 

Line 177. The Artijex. The mechanic, inventor, 
maker. 

Line 178. Scale. The incrustation that gathers 
on boilers. 

Slip. The loss of power caused by the fact that a 
ship's propeller operates not on a solid but on a fluid 
body, in which the screw does not progress to the full 
amount of its pitch. When the propeller is lifted 
wholly or partly out of the water, as often happens 
in rough weather, there is more ' slip ' to be reckoned 
with than when the water is smooth. 

Line 183. The 'Stand by' bell. The signal from 
the bridge to the engine-room to warn the engineer to 
'stand by' his levers ready to alter the ship's speed. 
The pilot, who has been cruising about off the English 
coast in a small sailing vessel waiting for a job, has 
seen a liner approaching and has lit a flare to indicate 
who he is. The officer on watch on the ship's bridge 
therefore warns the engineer to be ready to stop the 
ship in order to pick him up. 

Line 185. Pelagian. The doctrine of Pelagius 
was practically the converse of that of Calvin. Cal- 
vin taught that God has foreordained who are 
to be saved; Pelagius that it is the human will 

118 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

which is the determining factor in the salvation of 
the individual. 

THE MIRACLES 

Stanza i. Lost Atlantis. A legendary continent 
long since sunk beneath the sea, and now, if 
it ever existed, forming the bed of the Atlantic 
Ocean. 

Stanza 4. / stayed the sun at noon. The position 
of a ship is always ascertained at noon by an observa- 
tion of the sun's altitude, if it is visible. 

/ read the storm before it fell. I. e. by means of the 
barometer, which gives warning of bad weather. 

Stanza 5. Ere my rocket reached its height. As 
soon as a ship comes within touch of a signal station 
on the land she is approaching, she signals her name 
by means of flags or rockets, and the news of her 
arrival is immediately telegraphed inland. This 
poem was written in 1894, before wireless telegraphy 
had been brought into practical use. 

THE NATIVE BORN 

In England the term native is usually applied, by 
those who have no respect for their mother tongue, to 
any one with a dark skin. In the British overseas 
dominions it is applied to any one of English blood 
born in that dominion. 

Stanza 1. God bless her! These words always 
accompanied the toast of Queen Victoria's health, as 

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THE SEVEN SEAS 

'God bless him' is always said by English people 
when the health of King George is drunk. 

But he does not understand. Cf. in 'The English 
Flag,' 'What should they know of England who only 
England know ? ' 

The Cross. The Southern Cross, which after mid- 
night declines towards the west. 

Of obligation. The toasts of obligation are the 
loyal toasts drunk to the health of the Sovereign, the 
Royal Family, etc. 

Stanza 5. Galvanised iron is the roofing-material 
in common use throughout Australia. At the end 
of the dry season the grass is burnt over wide areas 
to ensure a fresh growth when the rains come, and for 
weeks at a time the sky is dimmed by the haze caused 
by these bush fires. On the great black-soil plains, 
which cover the greater part of New South Wales and 
Queensland, it is found unnecessary to shoe working 
horses, whose hoofs become naturally adapted to the 
soft stoneless soil over which they range. 

Stanza 6. This stanza refers to New Zealand, 
which is free from long periods of drought and sudden 
floods, such as Australia periodically experiences. 

Stanza 7. On the level treeless Canadian prairies 
it is possible to drive a plough, without deviating from 
a straight line, right across a large farm from one 
boundary to another. Both space and labour are 
thus economised. The furrows on some Canadian 
wheat farms are as much as eight miles long. 

120 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 8. Exceptionally severe hail and thunder 
storms are experienced throughout Cape Colony. 
Otherwise its climate is fine, dry and bracing, and 
of especial benefit to all whose lungs are weak. The 
great combers that roll in from the Southern Ocean 
and break on the coasts of Cape Colony vividly im- 
press all who see them. At Sea Point, on the out- 
skirts of Cape Town, they are especially magnificent. 
In the calmest weather they are ten feet or more in 
height, and break with a splendid roar, throwing their 
spray almost into the verandahs of the hotels. The 
swell on this coast is referred to in 'The Merchant- 
men' — 'the dread Agulhas Roll.' The 'baked Karoo' 
desert is infinitely more attractive than it sounds. Its 
climate is fine, dry and bracing, but it is its wonderful 
blend of colours that impresses it on the memory. 
The plains are dotted with low ranges of kopjes, 
between which grow stunted mimosa, wild pomegran- 
ate, and wax heath, all of which during the dry season 
is seen through a veil of limpid blue atmosphere. 
After the early rains the landscape becomes glorified 
with gorgeous purple and yellow blossoms and vivid 
greens. The Karoo is technically desert because of 
the absence of running water, but the areas that have 
been irrigated are as productive as any part of South 
Africa. 

Stanza 9. In Natal it is no uncommon thing for 
white children in outlying districts to speak Zulu 
before they can speak English, and even the children 

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of well-educated parents often for several years speak 
English with the characteristic Zulu intonation, and 
with occasional quaint renderings into English of 
Zulu metaphors. 

Stanza n. Your foot on the table. It is an old 
and excellent Scottish custom to drink toasts to those 
whom it is especially desired to honour, with one foot 
on the chair and the other on the table. 

THE KING 

Stanza i. The Cave-men. The Palaeolithic Pre- 
historic Age (see notes on the first stanzas of 'In the 
Neolithic Age' and 'The Story of Ung') is divided 
into two periods. In the earlier period lived the 
' river-drift men/ whose remains have been found be- 
neath beds of gravel, sand, or clay deposited by the 
Thames, the Somme, and other rivers; in the second 
period lived 'the Cave-men/ so called because their 
remains have been found in caves in various parts 
of Europe. 

The Gods of Hunt and Dance. If we may infer the 
religious beliefs of prehistoric men from those of prim- 
itive people of our own day (see note 'In the Neolithic 
Age/ stanza 5, p. 160), we may suppose that the gods 
of palaeolithic man were hunting gods, and that they 
were propitiated by ceremonial dances. The Red 
Indian idea of Heaven is a Happy Hunting Ground, 
and the Snake Dance of the Moquis, the Sun Dance 
of the Sioux, the Ghost Dance of the Paiute, the 

122 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Greencorn Dance of the Iroquois, all have a religious 
significance. Dancing as a religious ceremony was 
handed down from the ancient Greeks even to the 
early Christians, who made special provision for danc- 
ing in the choir. Methods of hunting the kangaroo 
and the gorilla are imitated in the ceremonial dances 
of the Australians and some of the West African ne- 
groes. A British Columbian Indian will pray to a 
mountain-goat to stand still and allow itself to be 
shot, and the licentious dances of the Bushmen are 
intended to propitiate He-Whom-we-know-with-the 
heart -but-cannot-see-with-the-eyes. 

Stanza 2. The Lake-Folk. (See note 'In the 
Neolithic Age,' stanza 7, p. 161.) 

Stanza 3 . The arquebus, the father of the musket 
and grandfather of the rifle, and the culverin, the 
progenitor of the modern field-gun, were not among 
the earliest types of firearm, but came into use during 
the sixteenth century (siege-guns first came into use 
in the fourteenth), when the development of the use 
of gunpowder was making the bow and the cross-bow 
obsolete, and thus revolutionising methods of warfare. 

Stanza 4. The known and noted breezes. The 
scientific mapping out of the prevailing winds of the 
world was begun in Germany at the beginning of the 
nineteenth century, and was soon taken up in Eng- 
land and America. At the present day charts are 
obtainable which lay down not only the regular winds 
but the tracks of recent storms and the courses they 

123 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

may be expected to take in the near future. The great 
maritime explorers of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies had to trust to luck more than to science, but 
it seems that Columbus, before undertaking his his- 
toric voyage, evolved a theory, which proved to be 
correct, as to the general trend of the North Atlantic 
winds. 

Stanza 7. The reeking Banks. The Banks are 
shoals to the south of Newfoundland, where fog pre- 
vails during a great part of the year. The fog is 
especially dangerous in that the Banks are frequented 
by the Newfoundland fishing fleet, and lie in the 
course of vessels bound from New York and the St. 
Lawrence to Liverpool, Southampton, Cherbourg, 
Hamburg, and other European ports. For a vivid 
description of the dangers of the Banks see Captains 
Courageous. 

THE RHYME OF THE THREE SEALERS 

Lines 14-29. At the time of which this poem treats 
there were about twenty schooners engaged in seal- 
poaching. They made Yokohama their base, but 
sailed under the colours of any nation, according to 
the needs of the moment. Their ostensible tradewas to 
hunt the valuable but almost extinct sea-otter. When 
they could not find unguarded seal-rookeries to rob, 
their plan of campaign was to land on a seal-island, 
fraternise with the Cossack guard, and, if they could, 
make them drunk and rob the warehouses in which 

124 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

the furs were stored. It was reported of one sealer 
caught by the Russians, a man named Maclean, that 
he was sentenced to work underground chained to a 
fellow-convict, and fed by means of a basket lowered 
down the shaft of the mine. His fellow died, and 
Maclean remained chained to the corpse for three days 
before he could communicate with those on the sur- 
face. The story lacks official confirmation, but shows 
the dread that seal-poachers had of the Russians. 
The 'Yokohama pirates,' as they were called, were 
dispersed or driven into more lawful livelihoods about 
the year 1886. 

The seal-islands belonging to Russia are Robben 
Island in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Komandorski 
(Commander) Islands in the Bering Sea. The latter 
are by far the more valuable. Bering Sea is called the 
Smoky Sea on account of the dense fogs that prevail 
there throughout the summer months, and on account 
of the smoke that drifts there from the volcanoes of 
the Kurile Islands. The blue fox has been introduced 
into many of the Bering Sea islands, where it can be 
bred more successfully than on the mainland, as it 
cannot there interbreed with the commoner and value- 
less red fox. The kit fox, the smallest of all foxes, is 
commoner and less valuable than the blue fox. Its 
skin is worth from one-and-threepence to five-and- 
sixpence, whereas that of the blue fox is worth thirty- 
four to one hundred and ninety-five shillings. 

Matka, a word applied to a she-seal, is the Russian 

125 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

word for ' mother.' As the Russians were the first to 
exploit the Bering Sea seal-fisheries, the terms used in 
the industry, such as holluschickie, the young unmated 
seals, and sea-catchie, the full-grown males, are Rus- 
sian. The movements of the seal herds are very 
regular, and the date of their arrival on the breeding- 
grounds can be foretold almost to a day. 

During the breeding season the full-grown bulls lie 
on the rocks near the shore, never leaving land till 
September. The young seals — whose fur alone is 
valuable — sleep and play among the sand-dunes 
farther inland, except when they visit the sea. The 
full-grown males leave paths between the sea and the 
inland dunes, and the holluschickie use these as much 
as they like, but should one venture on to a rock 
that a bull had reserved for himself and his cows, 
he would be roughly mauled. As the holluschickie 
are as easy to drive as sheep, seal hunters, instead 
of killing them where they find them, drive them in 
droves to convenient places near the beach before 
clubbing and skinning them. (See also note on the 
Envoy, p. 132.) 

Line 38. Weighed. Weighed or hoisted in her 
anchor. 

Line 41. Vladivo stock. The chief Russian naval 
station in the Pacific, to which vessels confiscated by 
patrol cruisers would be taken. 

Line 42. Whins. Gorse. 

Line 44. Hatches. The panels that cover the 

126 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

hatchway through which cargo is lowered into a 
ship's hold. 

Line 48. There was no time to man the brakes, they 
knocked the shackle free. Reference to the notes on 
the 'Anchor Song' (p. 140) will indicate what a long 
and tedious process is that of weighing anchor. 
Rather than be captured the crew of the Northern 
Light sacrificed their anchor and all the cable they 
had out by parting the latter at a point where one 
length of cable was joined to another by means of 
a shackle. This could be done in a few seconds. 
The brakes are the handles of a machine that in 
some ships is used instead of a capstan for weigh- 
ing the anchor. 

Line 49. Goose-winged, in the case of a * fore and 
aft' schooner (that is a schooner carrying no square 
sails), means with mainsail and foresail extended over 
opposite sides of the ship. 'Fore and aft' rigged 
vessels adjust their sails thus when running dead be- 
fore the wind. The Northern Light would naturally 
choose to run before the wind, as she had no particular 
course to steer and no object at the moment except 
to get away with all speed from what she believed 
to be a Russian cruiser. 

Line 51. The Mines of mercury. See note on 
lines 14-29. 

Line 53. Threw her up in the wind. Turned her 
head to the wind so that she came to a standstill. 

Line 54- Bluffed — raised out on a bluff. In the 

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THE SEVEN SEAS 

game of poker a player often pretends, by raising the 
stakes, to have a better hand than he really has. If 
his opponent has not confidence enough to bet an 
equally high stake he retires 'raised out' from the 
gamble. The first player then takes all the money 
that is on the table, winning by cunning what he 
could not have got by the value of his cards. The 
trick, which is allowed by the rules of poker, is called 
' bluffing/ The crews of both the Northern Light and 
the Stralsund 'bluffed' by faking their ships to resem- 
ble Russian cruisers. 

Line 65. With a double deck to play. With two 
packs of cards. 

Line 69. Boom. The spar that extends the foot 
of the mainsail over the schooner's stern. It creaks 
against the mast as it swings to port or starboard. 

Line 70. Bitt. A strong" post, standing upright 
on the deck, to which cables are made fast. 

Line 71. Pelts. Skins. 

Line 72. Flenching-knife. Skinning-knife. 

Line 82. Bend — a curved rib of the ship's frame- 
work. Butt — the end of a plank in a vessel's side 
where it meets the next plank. 

Line 83. Sparrow-dust. Small shot. 

Line 90. Joss. Pidgin-English for a heathen god. 
The etymology of the word is curious, as it is a corrup- 
tion of the Portuguese Deus. The word appeared in 
English literature as long ago as 171 1. 

Line 95. Chock. A block of wood wedged against 

128 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

a boat, cask, or anything secured on deck to prevent it 
from shifting when the vessel rolls. 

Cleat. A piece of wood bolted to the deck or the 
ship's side to which a rope may be made fast. 

Line 98. Fundy Race is between Nova Scotia and 
New Brunswick. The tide has here a range of be- 
tween 60 and 70 feet, exposing miles of foreshore, at 
low water. 

Line 99. And see the hogs from ebb-tide mark turn 
scampering back to shore. The sight of pigs scamper- 
ing to the shore is a common sight also on parts of the 
coast of Normandy, where the tide runs out two miles 
and more and comes in very rapidly. The pigs follow 
the tide as it goes down, grubbing in the mud for 
cockles. As soon as it turns they race back to the 
mainland lest they should be cut off and drowned. 

Line 108. A warlock Finn. Seamen credit the 
Finns with magical powers. In Dana's Two Years 
before the Mast 3. case is recorded of the master of a 
ship ill-treating a Finn member of his crew because he 
thought that the unfortunate man had maliciously 
caused the bad weather that the ship encountered. 

Line no. Topping-lift. A rope running from the 
masthead to the outer end of the boom. As Tom 
Hall was standing at the quarter-rail near the wheel, 
the topping-lift would be about on a level with his 
head. 

Line 113. Holluschickie. Young seal; the word 
literally means * bachelor.' 

129 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Line 120. The sea pull drew them side by side. 
Just as the earth draws lighter bodies towards itself, 
so two ships unanchored and becalmed near each 
other are slowly drawn towards each other. As the 
force exerted in the latter case is slight the movement 
is slow. In the case of a very large ship, however, it 
is a force to be reckoned with. 

The gunnel is the upper edge of the ship's side. 

Line 121. The sheer strake is the uppermost layer 
of the planks that form the ship's side. Technically 
the strake is one breadth of planks (or plates in an 
iron or steel ship) forming a continuous strip (or 
streak) from stem to stern. 

Line 129. Sun-dogs. In the Arctic there some- 
times appear to be three or more suns in the sky. 
One of these is the true sun. The others, which are 
called sun-dogs, are reflections of the sun from off the 
ice. 

Line 134. To weather and to lee. The weather 
side of a ship is the side from which the wind or the 
swell of the waves is coming. The opposite side is 
the lee. 

Line 136. He ads ails are all sails set forward of 
the foremast. 

Line 137. Sheet. The sheets are the lines at- 
tached to the lower corners of the sails to hold these in 
position. 

Line 142. Oh, there comes no good o' the westering 
wind that backs against the sun. In good weather, 

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THE SEVEN SEAS 

north of the equator, when the wind shifts it ' veers' 
regularly from east to south, south to west, west to 
north, etc., as do the hands of a clock, following the 
course of the sun. When it shifts in the opposite 
direction, against the sun's course, it is said not to 
'veer' but to 'back.' Bad weather always follows 
the backing of the wind. It is perhaps from this 
natural law that the widespread fear of making any 
circular movement, such as passing wine decanters 
round a dinner-table, widdershins (that is in the oppo- 
site direction to the sun's course), has arisen. 

Line 145. Tolstoi Mees (Thick Cape). The east- 
ernmost point of St. George in the PribylofT Islands. 
Of these islands, St. George and St. Paul, named after 
the ships in Bering's fleet that discovered them, are 
those on which the seal breed. They formerly be- 
longed to Russia, but were ceded, together with 
Alaska, to the United States. They contain the 
largest seal-rookeries in the world, which are carefully 
preserved by the United States Government. 

Line 146. Shoal water. Shallow water near land 
as opposed to 'the deep,' the open sea. 

Line 147. The four hours at a time during which 
a sailor is on duty is called his watch on deck. His 
four hour period of leisure is called his watch below. 
The time during which it is his duty to steer the vessel, 
which seldom exceeds two hours at a time, is called his 
trick at the wheel. 

Line 151. Tell the Yoshiwara girls to burn a stick 

131 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

for him. Both the Chinese and Japanese venerate the 
dead by burning sticks of incense (called joss-sticks in 
Pidgin-English ; see note on line 90) before the images 
of gods, saints, etc. Yoshiwara is the quarter of 
Yokohama where the prostitutes live. 

Line 153. Carry him up to the sand-hollows to die 
as Bering died. Vitus Bering, the Danish navigator, 
explored the Bering Sea on behalf of the Russian 
Government in 1728 and again in 1741. (See note on 
line 145.) On the latter voyage he was shipwrecked 
on the island in the Komandorski Group which now 
bears his name. Bering was very ill with scurvy at 
the time, and his crew laid him down on the sand, 
which soon drifted round him, partially covering him. 
When his crew would have cleared it away he told 
them to leave it, as he said it helped to keep him warm. 
The last resting-place of his life thus became his grave. 

Envoy. Constant fogs in the Bering Sea make 
navigation very difficult, as it is rarely possible to 
take an observation of the sun. Navigators rely 
principally on the lead, which gives them the depth 
and the character of the sea-bottom below them for 
comparison with the chart. For the rest they must 
depend on guess work and luck. The islands on 
which the seal breed may, however, be approached 
with confidence, as their situation is revealed by the 
' deep seal-roar,' which day and night throughout the 
breeding-season goes up from the seal-rookeries — it is 
composed of the bellowing of bulls (sea-catchie) chal- 

132 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

lenging each other, of the mother seals (matkie) calling 
to their pups, and the pups (kotickie) bleating for their 
mothers. It has been compared by H. W. Elliot, 
author of An Arctic Province, the standard work on 
the seal-islands, to the booming of Niagara Falls, and 
to the roar of a Derby Day crowd by Roger Pocock, 
who, in The Frontiersman, gives an account from per- 
sonal experience of a voyage made on a seal-poaching 
schooner. The noise rises above the thunder of the 
surf and the roar of the fiercest gale. As it can some- 
times be heard six miles out to sea, ships approaching 
the islands hear it and can find their way through the 
fog by its guidance. 

The habits of the seal while on the breeding-grounds 
are intensely interesting. Each full-grown bull has 
as many cows as he can control and keep. The aver- 
age is thirty cows to each bull. Some have been 
known to have as many as a hundred, but weaklings 
have to be content with one or two. The bulls haul 
ashore on the seal-islands before the cows arrive. 
They select resting-places for the season, choosing 
situations near the sea for preference, so that they 
may watch for the cows when they arrive and secure 
as many as possible. Until the cows come they spend 
their time fighting each other for the best places. A 
month after the bulls have hauled ashore the cows 
begin to arrive. The bulls, on seeing them, swim out 
to meet them, each endeavouring to drive as many as 
possible to his own reservation. While a bull is col- 

i33 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

lecting his seraglio, other bulls will try to steal his 
cows and he will have to fight for them. Very often, 
while two bulls are fighting for a cow, a third bull will 
come on the scene, seize her, taking the scruff of her 
neck between his teeth, and drag her away to his own 
camping-ground. The cow will not be hurt unless 
a fourth bull seizes her by the tail and tries to pull her 
in another direction. The cows have to be guarded 
so vigilantly that the bulls do not sleep for more than 
a few minutes at a time during the three months that 
they are on shore. The strongest and heaviest bulls 
that have won stations near the shore, and are thus 
able to watch for the arrival of the cows, get the 
biggest seraglios. Those bulls that have had to put 
up with stations farther inland have to be content 
with such cows as they can steal while other bulls are 
fighting. A comprehensive and accurate account of 
the habits of seals is given in 'The White Seal' {Jungle 
Book). 

THE DERELICT 

Stanza 2. Whom now the currents con, the rollers 
steer. On board ship the officer of the watch cons the 
ship, giving his directions to the steersman. 

Stanza 3. The gear . , . answers the anguish 
of the beams 1 complaining. As the ship is not being 
held to a course, the wind will not fill her sails and 
keep her yards steady. The gear (rigging) therefore 
creaks with every roll of the abandoned ship. 

i34 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 4. My hawse-pipes guttering wail. The 
hawse-pipes are the holes in the ship's bows through 
which the anchor-cables pass. Each time the derelict 
pitches, the water will come spluttering up through 
these holes, swishing down them again as her head 
rises before the next wave. 

Watches. Time is kept at sea by * watches' of four 
hours each. 

Stanza 6. Comber. A great curling wave. 

Stanza 7. Where the bergs careen. A ship that is 
being careened (see note, 'The Song of Diego Valdez,' 
stanza 4, p. 205) is made to lie over on one side. Ow- 
ing to the fact that they are constantly melting, 
icebergs lean over on one side more and more until 
they topple over. 

Strake on strake. A strake is one breadth of planks 
in a ship's side forming a continuous strip from stem 
to stern. 

THE SONG OF THE BANJO 

Stanza 1. Pack. Carry on the back of a pack- 
horse. 

Tails. Straggles. 

Stanza 2. So I play 'em up to water and to bed. 
One of the last duties in camp before settling down for 
the night is to water horses. 

Stanza 4. Dung-fed camp smoke. In treeless coun- 
try the scarcity of fuel creates a problem for travellers 
that is sometimes difficult to solve. The sun-dried 

135 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

dung of horses, cattle, antelopes, etc., gives, however, 
a good heat and burns with a clear glow. The main 
drawback to its use is the labour entailed in collecting 
it. 

Stanza 6. Rowel 'em. Spur them. 

Stanza 7. Blooded — initiated. In many primitive 
initiation ceremonies neophytes are smeared with 
blood. The ceremony is still sometimes performed 
in the English hunting field on a youngster who is 'in 
at the death' for the first time. 

The shouting of a backstay in a gale. A backstay 
is a wire rope that supports the mast of a ship, ex- 
tending from the topmast head to the bulwark. In 
a high wind its vibrations give out a clear resonant 
note. 

Stanza 8. Hya! Heeya! Heeya! Hullah! Haul! 
These are cries used by sailors when hauling to ensure 
that all shall pull in unison. Usually the boatswain 
or one of the leading seamen, such as the captain of 
the mainmast, gives the time to the others. Such 
cries are usually preceded by a verse of a chantey 
(see 'The First Chantey,' introductory note, p. 99). 

Sign and sail. A seaman has to ' sign on ' the ship's 
articles before he is allowed to sail in her. 

Johnny Bowlegs. There is here an allusion to the 
Cape-Dutch song, 'Pack your kit and trek, Johnny 
with the limping leg.' 

Kit. Luggage, outfit. 

Trek. This is a word that has wandered far from 

136 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

its original meaning. It literally means 'pull/ and in 
this sense is used by a Boer waggon-driver to his oxen. 
The word was subsequently applied, both as noun and 
verb, to a Boer migration by waggon in search of un- 
occupied land, and has now come to mean travel of 
any kind. 

Stanza 9. Many shedded levels. Where railways 
run among mountains above the snow-line, as for 
instance in the Canadian Rockies, it is necessary in 
many places to protect the line from snow-drifts and 
avalanches by building long sheds above it. 

The Song of Roland. This is the song that Taillefer, 
William's minstrel, sang as he rode to his death at the 
battle of Hastings. He had been granted permission 
to strike the first blow, and as he rode forward singing 
he tossed his sword in the air and caught it again so 
that the Saxons wondered at his skill. Roland, the 
hero of the song, commanded Charlemagne's rear- 
guard in the retreat from Spain. Attacked by an 
overwhelming Saracen force, Roland refused to sum- 
mon Charlemagne to his assistance, as he might have 
done by sounding his horn, until all but sixty of his 
men were killed. Then he blew it. He fought on 
till he was the last survivor, then blew his horn a 
second time, so fiercely that his temples burst. 
Charlemagne, thirty leagues away, heard the blast, 
and before he died Roland heard his answering battle- 
cry. The story of his exploits has grown in the telling, 
but Roland (or Hruodland) was an historical char- 

137 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

acter. 'The Song of Roland' is the great epic of the 
Middle Ages. 

Stanza 15. The Stealer. Hermes, the patron god 
of merchants and thieves, began his career of crime 
on the day he was born by stealing the oxen that 
Apollo tended (Hor. Od. i. 10). He invented the lyre, 
which he made out of a sea-shell and ultimately sold 
to Apollo, the god of music and poetry. 

Stanza 16. From Delos up to Limerick. Delos 
was the island which Neptune raised from the sea to 
afford a birthplace for Apollo. Limerick is a town in 
Ireland that has given its name to a particular kind 
of five-lined burlesqued epigram. According to the 
New English Dictionary, the form of the modern 
limerick has existed in Ireland for some considerable 
time. From Delos up to Limerick therefore covers 
all time from the most ancient to the most modern, 
and every class of song from the divine music of 
Apollo to the popular music-hall rhyme. 

THE LINER SHE'S A LADY 

A 'liner' is a passenger boat that plies regularly 
between certain ports. The cargo steamer, in sea 
slang called a 'tramp,' on the other hand, never knows 
where her next voyage will take her. She may go to 
West Africa for a cargo of oil or rubber in January, 
and in June be dodging ice in the White Sea on her 
way to Archangel for timber, and a month or so later 
may be loading cotton in New Orleans or lying in 

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THE SEVEN SEAS 

Rangoon on the chance of getting a load of rice. 
Very often she is out of touch with her owners, and 
her captain solicits custom from port to port. The 
earnings of a cargo steamer plying an uncertain trade 
therefore bear comparison with those of unfortunate 
women who hang about Portsmouth Hard by the 
Royal Dockyard waiting for sailors who have been 
paid off or granted liberty ashore. 
Fratton is a suburb of Portsmouth. 

MULHOLLAND'S CONTRACT 

Stanza 2. / had been singin to them to keep 'em 
quiet there. Prairie or bush bred cattle are very wild 
when first herded and driven towards market. At 
night time they are liable to stampede at any sudden 
noise, even that of a stick breaking beneath a horse's 
hoofs. It is therefore the duty of a stockman or cow- 
boy who rides round a herd at night to sing continu- 
ously, whether he has any musical ability or not. 
The cattle learn to associate the sound of singing with 
the men who drive them and to whom they get ac- 
customed. Therefore when they are on a cattle ship 
their natural fear at the unaccustomed noises of the 
sea will be modified if, above the din of the gale, they 
can hear the strains of the 'Swanee River' or 'Yip-i- 
addy.' 

Stanza 6. Stanchion. Any upright post or bar, 
such as the post of a cattle-pen or the iron pillar be- 
tween decks that supports the deck above. 

139 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 1 1 . An* turned my cheek to the smiter ex- 
actly as Scripture says. Cf. Luke vi. 29: 'And unto 
him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the 
other/ 

ANCHOR SONG 

In this song are contained in their proper order the 
words of command that the master of a sailing vessel 
might use in getting his ship away to sea. The proc- 
ess of getting up an anchor varies so greatly in 
different ships, however, and has undergone so much 
modification as machinery improved, that many sea- 
men might question the accuracy of the directions 
contained in this song. Some of the words used, 
moreover, are now almost obsolete. It should be 
mentioned, therefore, that all the terms here used, 
and the order in which the commands are given, have 
the authority of Dana's Sailing Manual. 

Stanza 1. All sails being so arranged that they 
can be let go at short notice, the cable is hauled in by 
means of the capstan — weary back-breaking work 
that requires all hands and may take two or three 
hours if much cable is out, for the cable comes in 
literally inch by inch. The men walk round and 
round the capstan, turning it with long handspikes 
placed in sockets at the head of the drum round which 
the cable is passed. When the cable is heaved short 
— that is, when all the slack has been hauled in — the 
drum of the capstan is kept from slipping back by a 

140 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

■pawl or steel wedge that locks into the cogged wheel 
at the base of the capstan. The men then go aloft 
to loosen the sails. The yards are braced aback and 
full — that is the foreyards are braced aback, a posi- 
tion which tends to send the vessel astern, and the 
afteryards are braced full to the wind, a position which 
tends to send her ahead. Thus the sails, though 
spread, neutralise each other and the wind holds the 
ship in one spot until the work of getting up the an- 
chor is completed. As soon as the anchor loses its 
hold on the ground the ship will drift. Before it is 
broken out, therefore, the jib must be hoisted. This 
will make the ship pay off — that is, her head will come 
round until the wind is at an angle that will start her 
on her course. 

Stanza 2. Mother Carey. A term of endearment 
applied to the open sea. Its history is peculiar. 
From the early days of Christianity the Virgin Mary 
was regarded as the especial patroness of sailors, and 
was invoked under various appellations, one of which 
was * Mater Cara' (Dear Mother). The name Aves 
Matris Carae (The Dear Mother's birds) was given to 
the stormy petrels, as these friendly birds warn sailors 
of the approach of bad weather. When Latin be- 
came a dead language the name Aves Matris Carae 
became in French 'Oiseaux de Notre Dame' and in 
English 'Mother Carey's chickens.' From the name 
Mother Carey's chickens, applied to the seabirds, 
comes the term Mother Carey applied to the sea. 

141 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 3. Everything being in such order that the 
ship will be under control directly she loses her hold 
of the bottom, the men return to the capstan and 
again heave away. Soon the anchor is apeak, that is, 
directly under the ship's bows, the cable stretching 
vertically downwards. With a strong heave it is 
broken out of the ground. The work then becomes 
lighter and proceeds more rapidly. When the anchor 
comes to the surface of the water the mate signals to 
the captain that it is 'awash.' ('Clear' means that 
it has come up clear — that is not fouled with the 
cable.) As it is the starboard bower — the anchor on 
the right hand side of the ship's bow — that has been 
holding her, the ship casts or turns to port as soon as 
the anchor leaves the mud. 

Stanza 4. Having severed their last connection 
with the land, the men feel that they are paying with 
the foresheet any debts they may have contracted 
ashore. Australian miners have a somewhat similar 
expression; when they leave a mining field without 
settling up with the storekeeper, they say that they 
'pay by the mile.' 

Ballast. Heavy material — iron, lead, sand, or 
stone — placed in the bottom of the hold to keep the 
ship steady. When a ship has little or no cargo to 
carry she is loaded with some comparatively worth- 
less material as extra ballast. This will be thrown 
overboard when space is wanted for a more profitable 
cargo. As British imports — grain, wool, timber, etc. 

142 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

— are on the whole more bulky than her exports of 
manufactured articles, it is inevitable that a number 
of ships must leave England 'in ballast.' 

Hawser. The cable attached to the anchor. 

Bitt. A perpendicular baulk of timber standing up 
from the deck, to which ropes, etc., are made fast. 
As soon as the anchor is clear of the water the men 
leave the capstan. Others who have been hauling in 
the slack of the cable as it passed the capstan-drum 
then make it fast to a bitt to prevent it slipping back. 

Foresheet. The line used to keep the foresail in 
position. 

Stanza 5. The ship now comes on her course and 
begins to forge ahead. The first thing to do is to 
secure the anchor on board. When first lifted clear 
of the water it hung from the hawse-hole — the hole in 
the bows through which the cable runs. It must now 
be hoisted handsomely (i. e. carefully) to the cathead — ■ 
a thick beam that projects from the bows and is per- 
forated at the end to hold a revolving pulley. This 
pulley is connected to a block now attached to the 
ring of the anchor. The free end of the rope that 
passes through both block and pulley is termed the 
jail. The seamen tally on to the fall [i. e. catch hold 
of it) and haul away, walking aft as they do so — the 
cable from the hawse-hole being simultaneously 
slackened — till the ring of the anchor is up to the 
cathead. The rope that passes through the sheave 
of the cathead is not strong enough permanently to 

i43 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

take the weight of the anchor, so it is now secured 
by means of a stopper, a heavy chain that is passed 
through the ring of the anchor. As this cannot easily 
be knotted, the stopper is made fast to the ring and 
stock of the anchor by seizing or lashing it with cord. 
The fluke of the anchor is still hanging downwards, 
and this also must be secured. A davit or fish-hook- 
shaped iron in the bows to the end of which a block is 
attached, similar to those with which a ship's boats 
are hoisted and lowered, is swung outwards. From 
its block dangles a rope, at the lower end of which is 
a hook. This hook is so swung that it catches in the 
fluke — the process is sufficiently like angling to justify 
the term fish. When the hook has caught the fluke 
it is hauled up till the stock of the anchor is parallel 
with the ship's side. The forward support or guy of 
the davit is then eased, with the result that the davit 
swings inward like a crane, carrying the fluke with it. 
The fluke is then lowered on to the gunnel of the ship, 
where it will remain until the anchor is again required. 

Stanza 6. All hands then go aloft and unfurl the 
square sails by loosening the gaskets, the slender ropes 
with which these sails when not in use are secured to 
the yards. The ship is now forging ahead and losing 
sight of one harbour landmark after another. 

Dropping light on light. When a ship leaves a land- 
mark so far astern that it disappears below the hori- 
zon, she is said to 'drop' it. When, on the other 
hand, she comes within view of it, she is said to * lift * 

144 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

it (cf. 'The Rhyme of the Three Sealers,' 'And if the 
light shall lift aright to give your landfall plain'; and 
'The Three-Decker,' 'You'll never lift again our 
purple-painted headlands'). 

Stanzas 7 and 8. Soon the ship is clear of the 
harbour and can be put on her course. The wind is 
against her and the ship must thrash or beat against 
it in a series of zig-zag tacks instead of sailing straight 
ahead as she would if she had a side wind or a fair 
wind (i. e. a wind behind her). As the prevailing 
wind in England is the south-west, it is usually the 
fate of ships outward bound down the Channel to 
have a head wind. The order is given to the helms- 
man, ' wheel, full and by.' He is to keep the ship as 
close to the wind as possible consistently with the 
sails being kept full or distended. The ship thrashes 
her way down Channel, passes the whirling Ushant 
light that marks the south side of the English Channel, 
and sees the lights of Brest Harbour in the distance. 
Then these nicker out and she is alone in the open sea. 

Red Ensign. The flag of the British mercantile 
marine. It is a red flag with the Union Jack occupy- 
ing one corner. The flag of the Royal Navy is the 
White Ensign. 

All she'll stand. All the sail that can safely be 
spread. 

The dirty scud to lee. Low thin clouds flying 
swiftly before the wind. 'Dirty' here does not refer 
to the colour of the clouds. In sea language bad 

i45 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

weather is called 'dirty' weather. Hence scud that 
indicates bad weather is dirty scud. The Ushant 
light is to the lee of the ship (i. e. on the opposite side 
to that from which the wind is blowing), because she 
was beating against the wind when she passed it. 

THE LOST LEGION 

Stanza 2. The Wallaby track. In the Australian 
bush a man in search of work, or who makes a pre- 
tence of wishing to get employment an excuse for liv- 
ing on the hospitality of the squatters, tramps from 
one station to another with his swag, i. e. a bundle 
consisting of a spare suit of clothes wrapped up in a 
blanket, on his back, and in his hand a billycan or 
'billy' in which to boil meat and make tea. Such a 
man is called a 'traveller,' a 'sundowner' (because he 
usually turns up at a station at sundown, when it 
would be churlish to refuse him hospitality), or a 
Murrumbidgee-whaler (because when not on the road 
he often ekes out a precarious living by fishing in the 
Murrumbidgee or other river, and is apt to tell lies 
about the 'whales' he has caught). When on the 
road, a sundowner is said to be 'humping his swag,' 
'humping Matilda,' or 'humping bluey' (a swagman's 
blanket is usually coloured so that it will not stain 
easily) . He is also described as being ' on the Wallaby 
track.' (The wallaby is a small kind of kangaroo.) 

Sarawak. The State of Sarawak in Borneo was 
founded by one of the most famous members of 'the 

146 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Lost Legion,' Sir James Brooke, who at his own ex- 
pense equipped a ship and trained a crew with which 
to enforce order among the Dyaks of North Borneo. 
In acknowledgment of his services, the Sultan of 
Borneo made him rajah of the State which is still 
governed by a member of his family. 

The Fly. The Fly River in British New Guinea. 
It attracts the hardier types of gold prospectors. 

Tucker. Food. 

Masai. A people of Eastern Equatorial Africa, 
who have a strong prejudice against work. Cattle 
looting used to be their chief industry, and the robbing 
of Swahili caravans their principal form of recreation. 

Stanza 3. The Islands. The South Sea Islands, 
owing to their warm climate and the absence of con- 
ventional society, have a great attraction for the class 
of man who likes to wear pyjamas all day. The 
industries open to white men are trading for beche-de- 
mer (sea-slug) for the Chinese market, and copra 
(dried cocoanut), pearl-fishing, and, with limits that 
are constantly growing more restricted, 'black- 
birding,' or kidnapping recruits for the indentured 
labour market. 

The Bay. The Gulf of Carpentaria, to the north 
of Australia, locally known as 'the Bay.' The centre 
of the pearl fishery in these waters is at Thursday 
Island in Torres Straits. 

We've shouted on seven ounce nuggets. In the early 
days of all the chief gold-fields, scarcity of currency 

i47 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

necessitated payment for everything bought locally 
in raw gold. Small payments were made in pinches 
of gold-dust — 'a nib' (of gold) for a 'nobbier' (of 
drink) was formerly a common Australian expression 
— but men who wished to celebrate a lucky strike 
would shout drinks for all-comers with a fair-sized 
nugget. A seven ounce nugget of Australian gold 
would be worth about £25, enough to buy ten drinks 
apiece for at least twenty-five people, even at the 
highest gold-fields' prices. Many stories are current 
of extravagance on the early gold-fields. Revolver 
practice at bottles of champagne was sometimes 
adopted as a pastime by those who were tired of 
* shouting' for every thirsty loafer in sight, and it was 
a common practice to place glasses of champagne on 
a dancing-floor, and make any dancer who upset one 
'shout' a case of champagne to be shared among the 
dancers. A wily Mohammedan camel-driver on the 
Coolgardie gold-field used to plead religious scruples 
when a miner offered to treat him, and ask that his 
camels should be shouted for instead: to assuage a 
camel's thirst was an expensive business with water 
at half a crown a gallon. 

A Seedeeboys pay. Seedee (Hind. Sidi) was a name 
originally given in India to African Mohammedans, 
many of whom formerly held positions of trust under 
Deccan rajahs. Later it came to mean negroes in 
general. Now, in its corrupted form of ' seedeeboy,' 
it is applied to natives of Africa (Zanzibaris, etc.) 

148 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

who work in the stokeholds of ships. The fact that 
many of the seedeeboys are Krumen from the coast 
districts of Liberia in West Africa, has given rise to 
the untenable derivation of 'seedee' from C. D. (i. e. 
Coast Districts). 

Sayyid Burgash. Sultan of Zanzibar and the ad- 
joining African coast from 1870 to 1888. He leased 
a part of his mainland territory — a strip of coast-line 
ten miles broad — to Sir William Mackinnon, from 
which concession grew what is now British East 
Africa. 

Loben. Lobengula, chief of the Matabele from 
1870 to 1894. He conceded the mineral rights 
throughout his dominions to the British South Africa 
Company for a number of rifles and ammunition and 
a sum of £100 a month, which he spent principally on 
bottled Bass. He did not, however, cede his privilege 
annually to raid the Mashonas. His assertion of this 
right — his warriors actually killed Mashona servants 
of the Chartered Company's pioneers in the streets of 
Victoria — led to the Matabele War, the destruction 
of the royal kraal near what is now Buluwayo, the 
flight of Lobengula towards the Zambesi, and the ex- 
tension of the Chartered Company's power in Mata- 
beleland. Lobengula's eyes were 'smoke-reddened' 
because Matabele huts are not provided with chim- 
neys, and Lobengula spent most of his time indoors 
towards the end of his reign, as he had become too 
corpulent to walk. 

149 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 4. An I. D. B. race. For many years the 
chief industry in Kimberley, next to diamond mining, 
was I. D. B. (i. e. illicit diamond buying). In spite of 
the utmost precautions, natives employed in the 
mines often smuggled diamonds out of the compounds 
and sold them for a twentieth part of their value to 
speculators. In consequence, in 1882, the Diamond 
Trade Act authorised a penalty of fifteen years' penal 
servitude for any one found in possession of an un- 
registered diamond. The mine-owners employed an 
immense number of detectives, and many of these, 
to earn their wages, did not scruple to offer an inno- 
cent stranger a diamond over a friendly glass of beer, 
and arrest him as soon as he had taken it into his 
hand. The detective might even drop it into his 
pocket unobserved, and then exercise his power of 
search. Cases are recorded of men hiding diamonds 
in the houses of men against whom they owed a grudge, 
and then informing the police where to find them. 
The methods taken in Kimberley to suppress I. D. B. 
were so muctji disliked in parts of South Africa, outside 
Cape Colony, that an I. D. B. thief was safe as soon 
as he crossed the border. The Orange Free State 
border being only a few miles from the town of Kim- 
berley, many I. D. B. thieves sought to escape by 
racing for the frontier on dark nights mounted on 
thoroughbred horses. The frontier was of course 
constantly patrolled by mounted police. In Kim- 
berley itself, owing largely to the methods of the 

150 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

detectives, I. D. B. was regarded as a very venial 
offence. A genial adventurer once told the writer of 
these notes that on one occasion, being under suspic- 
ion of I. D. B., his lawyer urged him to state frankly 
in confidence whether he had ever bought diamonds. 
His reply was, 'If you ask such damned silly questions 
I shall go to another lawyer. Don't all of us, and 
you yourself, buy diamonds when we get a chance?' 

Stanza 6. Foreloopers. The leading pair of oxen 
in a South African waggon-team, unlike Australian 
teams that obey the driver's voice, are usually led by 
a Kaffir boy, called a forelooper, who pulls them to 
the near side or the off side by means of a rheim of 
hide fastened to their horns. 

'Regards,' 'Hurrah/ 'Here's How' and ' Salue' 
are expressions used by men who pledge each others' 
healths, equivalent to the common 'Here's luck.' 
'Regards' is an abbreviation of 'Here's my regards.' 
'Here's How' is Canadian. According to Mr. E. B. 
Osborn (Morning Post, 14th March, 1913), 'How' was 
the signal given by the leader of a party of buffalo 
hunters for his men to close in on the herd. 'Here's 
a how' therefore has come to mean 'Let the fun be- 
gin/ 'Salue' is South African. 

The Australian goes back to the 'swag and billy 9 
(see note on stanza 2 of this poem). Packhorses are 
not used to any great extent in South Africa, and the 
Australian talks about the 'track, ' not the 'trail.' It 
is therefore the Canadian who goes back to the trail 

151 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

and packhorse. The South African goes back to the 
trek and the lager. 'Trek' in this case means journey 
(see note, 'The Song of the Banjo/ stanza 8, p. 136). 
A lager is a camp formed by drawing up waggons so 
as to form a square. This camp formation was 
adopted originally by the early Dutch voortrekkers 
as a means of defence against native attacks. It is 
still used in country where there is danger from lions. 
The oxen are confined inside the square, and the men 
with their families sleep in the waggons. 

THE SEA-WIFE 

Stanza 3 . For since that wife had gate or gear, 
Or hearth or garth or field. 
The words here used are north country words. 
Gate means the right to pasture horses or cattle on 
common land. Gear means property of any kind. A 
garth is a small piece of enclosed land, such as a yard, 
paddock, or orchard. 

HYMN BEFORE ACTION 

The words of this poem are adapted to the music 
of the well-known hymn 'The Church's one Founda- 
tion/ 

TO THE TRUE ROMANCE 

Stanza 5. Who wast or yet the Lights were set, 
A whisper in the Void. 
Cf. Genesis i. 1, 2: 'In the beginning God created 

152 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

the heaven and the earth. And the earth was with- 
out form, and void ; and darkness was upon the face of 
the deep.' 

Stanza 10. Wrack — damage, wreck. Scaith — 
harm. 

THE FLOWERS 

Stanza 3. Muisenberg, Constantia, and Wynberg 
are villages lying at the foot of Table Mountain. The 
writer of these notes, having five days to spend at 
Cape Town after living five years in the Queensland 
bush, devoted the whole of his spare time to wander- 
ing among the lanes between these villages, because 
the countryside reminded him so much of England. 
The resemblance would not probably have been so 
striking to one fresh out from home. 

The tilted wain. Throughout South Africa waggons 
provided with tilts or tent-like canvas coverings are 
in common use. An old-fashioned farmer likes to 
use his waggon as a dwelling-place when away from 
home, even when he visits a town where hotels are 
available. The tilt affords shelter for his bed and 
gear as well as privacy when he is asleep. 

Stanza 4. The Otway district of Victoria, where 
the magnificent Australian gum-trees are seen at 
their best, has been reserved as a State forest, an act 
of national forethought appreciated as much by mere 
holiday-makers as by those who wish to study Aus- 
tralian flora in its primeval conditions. 

153 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 5. The kowhai (Sophora tetraptera) is a 
New Zealand shrub with light foliage and bright 
yellow flowers. It flowers at the turn of midwinter 
before it bursts into leaf. Parts of the shores of 
Lake Taupo in North Island are covered with it, and 
as the season advances its petals drop on to the surface 
of the water. The kowhai was introduced into Eng- 
land in 1765 by Sir Joseph Banks. 

The windy town is Wellington, the capital of New 
Zealand. There is a local joke to the effect that no 
man in Wellington is ever seen with both hands in his 
pockets, as one is always needed to hold on his hat. 
The wind sweeps down from an amphitheatre of hills, 
the sides of which are golden with gorse and broom, 
that lie at the back of Wellington. 

The Bell-bird. One of the honey-eaters. Its note 
is most musical, and resembles a chime of bells. 

Ratas. The climbing rata {Metrosideros floridd) 
has a profusion of orange-scarlet flowers that make 
beautiful masses of colour against the dark green of 
the bush. Another rata (M. lucida) is a tree that 
grows to a height of sixty feet. 'Rata' is from a 
Maori word meaning 'red-hot/ an allusion to the 
colour of its flowers. 

Fern and Flax are the two most characteristic of 
New Zealand plants. The latter grows in large 
swampy areas. The tree-fern, perhaps the most ex- 
quisitely graceful of all plants, is common in the 
forests. 

iS4 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

THE LAST RHYME OF TRUE THOMAS 

What we know about True Thomas — Thomas of 
Erceldoune, the Rhymer — is more legendary than 
historical. He lived in the thirteenth century, on the 
Scottish side of the Border. According to a popular 
legend, Thomas, lying one day on Huntlie Bank, was 
accosted by a lady gay, the Queen of a realm not ' in 
heaven, paradise, hell, purgatory, nor on middel-erthe.' 
Thomas mounted behind the Queen on her milk-white 
steed and rode along the road to fair Elfland. 

' For forty days and forty nights 
He waded through red blood to the knee, 
And saw neither sun nor moon 
But heard the roaring of the sea. 

And till seven years were past and gone 
True Thomas on earth was never seen/ 

While in fairyland the Queen gave Thomas an ap- 
ple, saying: 

'Take this for thy wages, True Thomas: 
It will give thee the tongue that can never lie.' 

Two commonplace reasons may be assigned for the 
belief that the real Thomas of Erceldoune visited 
fairyland. The first is that he often used to disappear 
mysteriously for long intervals — commentators sug- 
gest to rest and meditate in a monastery. The second 
is that on one occasion he so nearly died that a super- 

155 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

stitious people may have supposed him to have visited 
another world. He was in an English prison so ill 
that the jailer, believing him to be dead, threw him 
over the walls on to the castle rubbish-heap. Here 
he was found by an old nurse, who carried him away, 
and while preparing him for burial found that he was 
not dead. 

The Eildon Tree Stone, a large boulder still lying 
by the wayside near Melrose, is said to mark the spot 
where True Thomas disappeared with the Fairy 
Queen. 

Stanza 3. Knowes. Hillocks. 

Stanzas 4 and 5. Under the feudal system knight- 
hood was an honour reserved for those who held land, 
and were thus able to place a number of armed re- 
tainers at the disposal of their sovereign in time of 
war. So many men of this class impoverished them- 
selves in order to equip troops for the Crusades, that 
it became the custom for monarchs to confer knight- 
hood on men who deserved it but had lost the means 
of suitably supporting the honour. Sometimes a 
monarch when creating a new knight would confer 
on him land sufficient to support his new dignity, also 
a keep (castle), tail (property reserved to the holder 
and heirs of his body), seizin (freehold land), the 
right to administer justice, a blazon (coat of arms), 
etc., thus placing him in all respects on an equality 
with those who could claim knighthood by virtue of 
the land they held. 

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THE SEVEN SEAS 

There were two ceremonies by which knighthood 
was conferred. On the battlefield the ceremony was 
as simple as at the present day, and consisted merely 
of a touch with the sword or a light blow from the 
hand, combined with an exhortation to knightly con- 
duct from the giver to the receiver. The other, less 
common, ceremony was far more elaborate. The 
prospective knight began by being shaved and having 
his hair cut. He then took a bath, and while he was 
in it two 'ancient and grave knights' instructed him 
'touching the order and feats of chivalry,' and made 
the sign of the cross with water on his naked shoulder. 
The candidate for knighthood was then dressed, re- 
freshed with wine, and left in the chapel, where he 
spent the night in prayer, his arms and armour having 
previously been placed on the altar. In the morning 
he confessed and received the Sacrament. After- 
wards he rode, attended by his future squire, to the 
hall where he was to receive knighthood. Two 
knights buckled on his gold spurs (only knights might 
wear gold spurs — squires wore silver), making the 
sign of the cross on his knees as they did so. Then he 
who was to dub him knight buckled on his sword, 
struck him on the neck, bade him be a good knight, 
and kissed him. Lastly, all went to the church, 
where the new knight laid his sword on the altar and 
vowed to defend the church. 

Each knight was entitled to be attended by a page 
and a squire — two boys of gentle birth who would 

iS7 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

themselves eventually become knights. A knight's 
attendant would be a page on entering his service 
and become a squire at the age of about sixteen, 
after which he accompanied his master in the battle- 
field. 

Stanza 28. Birred and brattled are two Scottish 
words. The former represents the sound made by a 
spinning-wheel, the latter that of horses cantering. 

Stanza 31. The eyass stooped upon the pye. The 
hawk swooped down on the magpie. 

IN THE NEOLITHIC AGE 

The Stone Age is the period in the world's history 
before man had learned the use of metals, and there- 
fore made his tools and weapons of wood, horn, and 
stone. It is divided into two periods, the Palaeolithic 
or 'old-stone' age when his stone implements were 
roughly chipped, and the Neolithic or mew-stone' 
age when they were highly finished and polished. The 
date of the Stone Age varies in different countries. 
In Egypt the Neolithic Period ended some six cen- 
turies b. c, whereas the Australian aborigines, the 
South African bushmen, and other peoples were still 
in the Neolithic stage, and the Tasmanians still in 
the Palaeolithic stage, when first discovered by Euro- 
peans. 

The scenes of the following stories are laid in Eng- 
land of the Neolithic Period, 'The Knife and the 
Naked Chalk' {Rewards and Fairies), 'How the First 

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Letter was written,' and 'How the Alphabet was 
made' {Just-so Stories). 

Stanza 2. Troll and gnome and dwerg. Super- 
natural dwarfish inhabitants of hills and caves and the 
bowels of the earth. 

Stanza 3. Solutre. In the Solutre cave at Saone- 
et-Loire (France) many relics of the Stone Age- 
have been found. They include stone spear-heads, 
flint knives and saws, and barbed spear-points, as 
well as bone and horn implements. They are as- 
sociated with gnawed bones of over forty thousand 
horses. 

A mammothistic etcher. That there were wonder- 
ful artists among the men of the Stone Age is evi- 
denced by the life-like etchings of mammoths, horses, 
fish, chamois, etc., that have been found engraved on 
bones and by relief carvings on horns of this period. 
Admirable paintings in three colours of boar and 
bison have been found in the cave of Altamira in 
Spain. They are said to be fifty thousand years old, 
and it is remarkable that they must have been made 
by artificial light. Neolithic man seems to have been 
more materialistic and practical than his Palaeolithic 
ancestors, for, although his tools were better, his art 
was greatly inferior to theirs. 

Stanza 4. / stripped them, scalp from skull. 
Scalping a dead enemy is a very ancient custom, not 
confined to North American Indians. Herodotus 
describes the practice among the Scythians, and the 

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Franks and Anglo-Saxons took scalps as late as the 
ninth century a. d. 

Stanza 5. But my Totem saw the shame. The 
worship of Totems, almost universal among savage 
peoples, is too vast a subject to treat in a note. 
Briefly it may be said that a man, a family, a clan or a 
tribe chooses some object for a totem and venerates it. 
The object is usually an animal, such as beaver, an 
emu, a crocodile (as Simeon means a wolf, Caleb a 
dog, etc., some authorities believe that the ancient 
Israelites were totem worshippers; other authorities 
say they were not), but such objects as the north-west 
wind, sea-foam, and even the ends-of-things have 
been adopted as totems. In most cases a man will 
not eat the flesh of an animal that he has adopted for 
his totem, though he would not object to others doing 
so. In some cases a man can marry any woman who 
has a different totem from his own, in other cases the 
opposite is the rule. Many North American Indians 
carve the ridge-poles of their houses with representa- 
tions of their totems. Among the duties of a totem 
are those of visiting his worshipper in dreams and 
giving him good advice. Although it is practically 
impossible for us to know anything definite about 
the religious beliefs of Neolithic man, Rudyard Kip- 
ling is on fairly safe ground in supposing that he was 
a totem worshipper, for innumerable cases have been 
found of primitive peoples holding religious beliefs 
that were current amongst races thousands of miles 

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away and thousands of years before. The theories 
among the modern Maoris with regard to the creation, 
for instance, are strikingly similar to those of the 
primitive Greeks, and the Greeks in their mysteries 
used an instrument, the rhombus, that the Australian 
blacks, who call it a turndun, still use in their initia- 
tion rites. 

Stanza 6. Certified by Traill. Henry Duff Trail, 
himself a minor poet as well as a critic and reviewer, 
was at the time of the publication of this poem a con- 
tributor to the St. James's Gazette and the Saturday 
Review. 

Stanza 7. Allobrogenses. A Celtic tribe of south- 
ern Gaul that came into contact with Rome in 121 
b. c. 

Our only plots were -piled in lakes at Berne. The 
prehistoric inhabitants of Switzerland lived in villages 
built on piles near the shores of lakes. Traces of over 
a hundred of these villages have been found, the most 
perfect example being one on Lake Moosseedorf near 
Berne. It was 70 feet long, 50 feet wide, and con- 
nected with the shore by a gangway of faggots. The 
relics that have been found there include stone axes 
with horn handles, a flint saw, harpoons of barbed 
horn, awls, needles, chisels and fish hooks of bone, 
and a skate made out of a horse's leg bone. 

The plot of any literary work is its main outline. 

Stanza 9. The wildest dreams of Kew are the facts 
of Khatmandhu. Khatmandhu, the capital of Nepal, 

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is noted for its beauty, fertility, and equable climate, 
so that what is grown at Kew Gardens with great 
labour and trouble can be grown there without any 
trouble at all. A great spring festival is held there 
annually. 

The crimes of Clap ham chaste in Martaban. The 
district of Clapham in London earned a reputation for 
piety when the * Clapham sect,' which included Wil- 
liam Wilberforce, Zacchary Macaulay, and other 
philanthropists, lived there. Martaban is a town near 
Moulmein in Burma, a land east of Suez, where, 
according to Kipling's ' Mandalay,' 'there aren't no 
Ten Commandments.' 

THE STORY OF UNG 

Ung belonged to the later period of the Palaeolithic 
or 'old-stone' age. Men of this period lived a life 
almost identical with that of the Eskimo of to-day — 
it is suggested, indeed, that the modern Eskimo are 
their lineal descendants — except that later Palaeolithic 
men lived mostly in caves. Contemporary European 
animals included the cave-bear, the cave-hyena, the 
cave-lion, the mammoth, the sabre-toothed tiger, 
the hairy rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the musk-ox 
and musk-sheep, the Irish elk, the wild horse, the 
glutton, the reindeer, and the aurochs. 

Stanza 5. The mastodon was a prehistoric ele- 
phant. The most obvious difference between it and 
the mammoth was that the former's tusks were 

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straight whereas the tusks of the latter were curved 
almost into the form of a circle. 

The bowhead is a variety of the Arctic right- 
whale never found far from the floes and ice-barri- 
ers. As the normal life of a whale extends to many 
hundred years, he has not yet had time to modify 
his shape. 

Stanza 8. Ouches. Brooches (see note on 'Dor- 
dogne,' stanza 13, below). 

Stanza 9. Trammels. Nets. 

Stanza 13. Near Dordogne in western France are 
caves in which have been preserved a large number 
of relics of Palaeolithic man. These include awls, 
lance-heads, hammers and saws of flint, bone needles, 
arrowheads, harpoons, the gnawed bones of mam- 
moths, cave-lions, cave-bears, horses, reindeer, ibex, 
and musk-sheep, and representations of animals — 
oxen, reindeer, horses, bison, etc. — either sculptured 
on horn or engraved on stone or ivory. One of the 
most remarkable of these is a figure of a mammoth en- 
graved on a piece of mammoth ivory. In one place 
the artist seems to have made a false stroke (no era- 
sure of a line was possible to him), but the whole 
figure is far better drawn than most modern untrained 
men could draw. The proportions of the great ani- 
mal, his shaggy hide and small eye, his life-like posi- 
tion, are delineated with great skill. On the walls 
of the cave of La Mouthe are three pictures of hunting 
scenes: one represents bisons and horses, one a primi- 

163 



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tive hut, a bison, reindeer, ibex and mammoth, and 
one a mammoth, hinds, and horses. 

THE THREE DECKER 

The old wooden three-decker ships are as extinct as 
the three-volume novel. They became obsolete when 
ships were built of iron. They were staunch vessels, 
though. The Victory was forty years old when she 
carried Nelson into action at Trafalgar, and is still 
afloat in Portsmouth harbour. 

Stanza I. A watch. Half the ship's crew (see 
note, 'The Second Voyage,' stanza 5, p. 204). 

Packet. Strictly a ship sailing regularly to a defi- 
nite destination instead of tramping now to one port, 
now to another. 

Stanza '2. Able Bastards. This expression refers 
to the general tenor of the early Victorian novel, when 
the apparently low-born hero turns out to have been 
changed at nurse. Hence ' Wicked Nurse confessed.' 

Islands of the Blest. An earthly paradise on the 
rim of the western ocean inhabited by mortals to 
whom the gods have given immortality. No wind 
blows there and perpetual summer reigns. In this 
case they typify the regions of romance. 

Stanza 3. Some readers see in this stanza a pun- 
ning reference to the well-known tourist agencies of 
Gaze and Cook and to the Inman line of passenger 
steamers, now incorporated with the American Line. 

Stanza 4. Zuleika was, according to the Koran, 

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the name of Potiphar's wife who tempted Joseph 
(Yussuf). The Old Testament story is related in the 
39th chapter of Genesis. 

Stanza 5. Fo'c's'le. The forecastle of a ship, in 
which the common seamen are quartered. 

Stanza 6. County-folk. The aristocracy of an 
English county consists mainly of families that have 
been long established on the land and are called 
'county people.' A newcomer requires good intro- 
ductions if he is to be received into this class. The 
old type of three-volume novel seldom concerned it- 
self with people of lower than county rank. The works 
of Dickens did much to break this convention. 

Stanza 7. Lift (see note to 'Anchor Song,' stanza 
6, p. 144). Purple-painted. The colour lent by dis- 
tance to a landscape. 

Lordly keeps of Spain. To build 'Castles in Spain 5 
is an expression, borrowed from the French, for weav- 
ing magnificent fancies. 

A ram-you-damn-you-liner. A passenger steamer 
that does not care how many small craft she sinks, 
being solely concerned with maintaining her adver- 
tised speed from port to port. 

Bucking-screws. High-speed propellers that shake 
the ship when they race. 

Stanza 8. Sirens. The Sirens of classical myth- 
ology were sea-nymphs whose voices were so ravish- 
ing that none could resist them. The hooters that 
modern steamers blow at regular intervals when 

165 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

steaming through fog are satirically called sirens, 
because the noise they make is so hideous. 

Boom out the dripping oil-bags. In very bad weather 
bags of oil are suspended on long booms over the 
weather side of the ship. The oil dripping into the 
water gives the oncoming waves a temporary oily 
coating, with the result that they do not break as 
badly as they otherwise would. 

Stanza 9. Threshing. Beating against the wind. 

Drogue. A sea-anchor made of planks, oars, etc. 
A crippled vessel in tempestuous weather must ride 
out the gale head to wind ; if she presented her side to 
the waves she would be swamped by the seas that would 
break over her. A bundle of planks is thrown over- 
board and attached to the ship's bows with a cable. 
As the ship will drift faster to leeward than the planks, 
the drogue will hold her head towards the wind. 

The Flying Dutchman. This phantom ship sails 
calmly in the teeth of the fiercest gale (see note, 'The 
Merchantmen/ stanza 7, p. 107). 

Truck to taffrail dressed. Adorned with flags along 
the full length of the signal halliards from the mast- 
head to the stern. 

Stanza 10. Poop-lanterns went out of use at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century. 

Stanza 11. Hull down. The ship is so far off that 
her hull is below the horizon and only her masts are 
visible. 

All's well. The customary cry of the man on 

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watch at night each time that the hour or half-hour is 
struck on the ship's bell. 

AN AMERICAN 

Stanza i. Avatar. The earthly form in which a 
deity or spirit manifests itself. 

Stanza 4. Stoop — veranda. The word was intro- 
duced into America, as it was into South Africa, by 
early Dutch colonists. At the time when this poem 
was written the average immigration into the United 
States from various European countries was over 
half a million per annum. It has become even greater 
since then. 

THE 'MARY GLOSTER' 

In the last chapter of his book Master Mariners, 
Mr. John Spears shows that the history of modern 
shipbuilding is carefully followed in this poem. 

Line 9. Master, i. e. master-mariner, the correct 
designation of the officer in charge of a ship in the 
British mercantile marine. Such an one is not, strictly 
speaking, entitled to be called 'captain,' as this is a 
title reserved for the Royal Navy. 

Line 10. Freighters — cargo ships. A ship that 
regularly carries passengers is a liner. 

Line 18. Ran 'em or opened the bilge-cocks. The 
effect of opening the bilge-cocks of a ship is to let 
water into the hold. If left open the vessel will fill 
and founder. Dishonest shipowners, finding that a 

167 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

vessel belonging to them is too old to be profitable or 
in too bad repair to be worth mending, sometimes 
instruct her master to find an opportunity of sinking 
the vessel at sea in order that they may get the money 
for which the ship is insured. The master who con- 
sents to the crime must, of course, be liberally re- 
warded, as he risks his life (and that of his crew) in 
the first place, and secondarily risks his liberty if the 
fraud should be discovered. 

Line 31. Clippers. Clipper-built ships, properly 
speaking, are sailing-ships built with bows raking for- 
ward and masts raking aft. They are designed for 
speed. At the time when sail was still competing 
with steam for the mastery of the sea, clipper-built 
sailing-ships carried cargoes — such as tea from China 
and wool from Australia — the owners of which wished 
to get their goods on the market as speedily as possi- 
ble. The freights earned by the owners of such ships 
was greater than that charged by slower vessels. 
Some of the clippers made remarkably fast passages. 
The Rainbow in 1843 sailed from London to Canton 
in ninety-two days and returned in eighty-eight. In 
i860 the Dreadnought ran from Sandy Hook across 
the Atlantic to Queenstown in nine days seventeen 
hours (cf. Captains Courageous, where her exploits 
are sung). The Lightning established a world's record 
by sailing 436 miles in one day of twenty-four hours, 
which would be a good day's steaming for a modern 
P. & O. boat. The average modern tramp-steamer 

168 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

steams about 200 miles in the twenty-four hours. 
The passage here, however, refers to fast cargo- 
steamers entitled to be called clippers on account of 
their speed. The fastest sailing-ships could not be 
depended upon to make such runs as those exceptional 
ones mentioned above, and more reliable fast cargo- 
steamers gradually took their trade. 

Line 47. The Lines were all beginning. The 
Cunard, the P. & O., and the Pacific Steam Navigation 
Company started in 1840. There was no further 
important development till 1850, when the Inman 
line began. The Leyland started in 1851. The 
Allan, the African Steamship Company, and the 
Ocean Company began in 1852; the Union Steamship 
Company in 1853 ; and the British India in 1855. 

Line 50. . . . And a Social hall. This would 
appear to have been one of the earliest names given 
to the first room aboard a passenger liner which was 
neither the Saloon nor the Smoking-room — the an- 
cestor, so to speak, of all 'lounges', etc., of the mam- 
moth modern liner. 

Line 54. I'd given my orders for steel. The con- 
struction of steel ships began between 1870 and 1875. 
Between 1875 and 1880 twenty-six steel steamers 
were built in the United Kingdom, and three hundred 
and sixty-two iron steamers. In 1906 six hundred 
and sixty steel steamers were built in Great Britain, 
and only one iron steamer. In 1907 no iron steamers 
were built at all. 

169 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Line 55. First expansions. In modern steamers 
the cylinders are quadruple expansion. 

Line 86. Galley. Ship's kitchen. 

Line 128. Hundred and Eighteen East and South 
just three. This point is in Macassar Strait, in the 
channel between the Little Paternosters and Celebes, 
a little to the south-east of the former. 

Line 131. M' Andrew, he's chief of the Maori Line. 
From ' M' Andrew's Hymn' it appears that M' An- 
drew was once third engineer on the Mary Gloster; 
later he was on a ship running out to New Zealand 
via the Cape and homewards round the Horn. 

Line 141. In Ballast — without cargo. Steamers 
are ballasted with water in tanks (see note on 'Anchor 
Song/ stanza 4, p. 142). A lively ship — a ship that 
rolls and pitches a good deal. 

Line 145. 'Ouse-flag. The flag of Sir Anthony's 
Company — presumably bearing the device of a Red 
Ox. 

Line 174. But I wouldn't trust 'em at Wokin'. 
Sir Anthony had evidently purchased a family vault 
from the Woking Necropolis Company, but had his 
doubts of being able to regain his wife from a situation 
so far inland. 

Line 180. She trims best by the head. To trim a 
vessel is to adjust her ballast so that she will float 
upright. Sir Anthony means that the Mary Gloster 
balances best when so ballasted that her bow is slightly 
lower in the water than her stern. 

170 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Line 185. That was the after bulkhead. The bulk- 
heads are the partitions between the water-tight 
compartments of a ship. As a vessel sinks these 
burst one after another with the pressure of water and 
imprisoned air. 

SESTINA OF THE TRAMP ROYAL 

A sestina is a poem of six stanzas of six lines each, 
with an envoy containing the author's parting words. 
The line endings of the first stanza are the line endings 
of each of the other stanzas but in different order. 
This form of poem was first used by the troubadours. 
It has been described as a dangerous experiment, on 
which only poets of the first rank should venture. 

WHEN 'OMER SMOTE TS BLOOMIN' LYRE 

Stanza 1. 'E went and took — the same as me. 
Since Mr. Rudyard Kipling thus frankly admits his 
indebtedness to the work of others, there is no 
indiscretion in indicating a few of the phrases that 
he has borrowed. The title Many Inventions is from 
Ecclesiastes vii. 29, and several of these notes call 
attention to passages in the Bible of which he has 
made use. Traffics and Discoveries is part of the full 
title of Hakluyt's Voyages — The Principal Navigations, 
Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Na- 
tion made by sea or overland to the Remote and Farthest 
Distant Quarters of the Earth at any time within the 
compass e of these 1600 Ye ares. The words their lawful 

171 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

occasions come in the general prayer for those at sea 
in which security is prayed for 'such as pass on the 
seas upon their lawful occasions' — a prayer obviously 
designed to exclude pirates. Captains Courageous is 
from Mary Ambree, Reliques of Ancient English 
Poetry, vol. ii., where the words are spelt 'captaines 
couragious.' A Fleet in Being was a phrase coined 
by Admiral the Earl of Torrington. In a despatch 
to the Council of Regency in 1690 he said that 'whilst 
we had a fleet in being they (the French) would not 
dare to make an attempt' to invade. The phrase has 
come to have a technical meaning, and is applied to a 
fleet that has a certain definite degree of efficiency. 
The key to the origin of the title Rewards and Fairies 
is given in the first story of Puck of Pook's Hill. 
Puck sings a song, the first line of which (though he 
would not sing it, as he had an objection to the word 
'fairies') runs 'Farewell Rewards and Fairies.' The 
song was written by Richard Corbet, poet, bishop, and 
boon companion of Ben Jonson. It would be im- 
possible to catalogue all the government reports, 
journals of learned societies, old records, etc., from 
which Mr. Rudyard Kipling has drawn the material 
for his stories. 

'BACK TO THE ARMY AGAIN' 

In the British army a man who has served his 
time 'with the colours,' that is, has undergone a 
period of service with his regiment, either in barracks 

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THE SEVEN SEAS 

or on active service, is transferred from the active list 
to the reserve. In the reserve he is free to follow 
whatever occupation he likes and to live where he 
likes, his only obligation being that he must return 
to his regiment and his former duties when called 
upon in a time of emergency. While in the reserve 
he draws pay at the rate of 4.6. a day. In some cir- 
cumstances a man is allowed to continue with the 
colours instead of joining the reserve, but as a rule he 
is transferred whether he wishes it or not. The theory 
underlying this regulation is that by keeping men 
with the colours for short periods only, and then com- 
pelling them to give place to fresh recruits, the largest 
possible amount of men are trained to arms at a 
minimum cost. A man is not allowed to re-enlist, for 
by doing so he upsets the purpose of the regulation. 
If he does re-enlist, therefore, he must fraudulently 
pretend that he has not served before. 

Stanza 1. Ticky. Lousy. 

Goose-step. The first drill taught to a recruit. He 
has to stand on one leg holding out the other in front 
of him until at the word of command he lowers the 
latter and raises the former. The purpose of the drill 
is to teach him to balance himself properly on his feet 
as a first step towards teaching him to march in a 
soldier-like fashion instead of shambling and shuffling. 
A man undergoing the goose-step drill is apt to look 
supremely ridiculous. 

Stanza 2. Back pay. A lump sum of money 

i73 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

given to a man on leaving the colours with which to 
tide over the time between the cessation of his pay 
as a soldier on the active list and his finding some 
civilian employment. 

Right about turn. This apparently simple action 
needs three definite movements — (i) the right foot is 
drawn back till its toe touches the left heel, (2) the 
body is swung round on the heels, (3) the left foot is 
advanced so that its heel touches the heel of the right 
foot. No one could do this in approved military 
fashion without being taught to do so. 

Stanza 3. Dress. Sidle up to neighbour. Dur- 
ing marching-drill a space of about an inch is pre- 
served between each man and his neighbour. When 
the squad halts, lest there should be any gaps in the 
ranks each man 'dresses by the left' (or by the right 
as the case may be), i. e. he moves to the left (or right) 
until he can just feel his neighbour's sleeve touching 
his own. As this must be done immediately a squad 
is halted, a trained man will do it instinctively, 
whereas an untrained man, though he may realise 
that he ought to be nearer his neighbour, will not 
know without being told whether he should sidle up 
to the man on his right or the one on his left. 

Stanza 4. 'Shun. If a command is to be obeyed 
smartly it is necessary that the word of command 
should be as short as possible. The command, 'at- 
tention' — at which a soldier straightens his body, 
brings his heels together, and adopts an attitude of 

i74 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

alertness generally — has therefore been boiled down 
into the monosyllable ' 'shun.' No untrained recruit 
could come to attention by the light of nature, for 
the position necessitates that the head, knees, shoul- 
ders, arms, hands, fingers, and eyes should each be 
held in a particular way. If, therefore, a man who 
pretends to be untrained comes to attention without 
making a mistake in one or other of these particulars, 
his pretence is fairly sure to be suspected. 

Rookies. Recruits. 

Carry an port. Two positions in which the rifle 
is held. Carry — sloping across the body, and resting 
in the hollow of the left arm. Port — held in both 
hands across the body in such a position that the 
breech may be examined by an inspecting officer. 

Stanza 5. The Jumner. See note 'Troop in 1 , 
stanza 2, p. 43.) 

Stanza 6. Slops — clothes. A soldier's uniform 
is issued to him ready-made. He takes them to the 
regimental tailor for necessary alterations. 

Stanza 7. A swagger cane. A light cane carried 
by all soldiers, except such as are required to carry 
riding-whips, when out for a walk in uniform. Fash- 
ion is rigid in the matter, each regiment having its 
own pattern of cane with the regimental crest on 
the handle. The Regulations do not require that 
a man should carry a cane, but the unwritten law 
of the army does. If a sergeant met a man out- 
side barracks who was not carrying a cane, he would 

i75 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

probably tell him that he had not finished dressing 
himself. 

Stanza 8. 'Oo's there? 'Who's there,' or 'who 
goes there,' is the regulation question put by a 
sentry when challenging any one who approaches 
him. 

'BIRDS OF PREY' MARCH 

Stanza i. Eyes Front. It is not considered seemly 
for soldiers who are marching through a town to stare 
about them. Should a man turn his head to look at 
something he will be called to order by the nearest 
sergeant with the command 'eyes front.' In passing 
some one entitled to a salute, the command ' eyes right' 
or 'eyes left' will be given. On a long march the 
command 'open order' is given, when discipline of 
this sort is relaxed. 

Colour-casins. The waterproof covering of the 
regimental colour or flag. 

Stanza 2. Keep your touch. When a number of 
men abreast wheel round a corner, the outside man 
has to move faster than the inside man. This tends 
to make the men separate, and to counteract this 
tendency, each man should close in to his neighbour 
towards the inside man, who is the pivot on which 
they are wheeling. 

Mark time. Keep the feet moving, but without 
advancing. Wheeling checks the normal speed of 
the march. After the corner is well passed, therefore, 

176 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

the leaders mark time for a moment to allow the rear 
ranks to close up. 

Stanza 4. Slingers. Rolls of army bread dipped 
in tea to make them more palatable when butter, 
jam, etc., are not available. The following deriva- 
tion is supplied by a gunner in the R. H. A.: 'It's 
like this: at the canteen, when a man as can't sing 
gets up to sing, the men takes an' slings slingers at 
him.' 

'Tzveen-decks. The lower deck on a troopship. 

Stanza 5. Kit. Luggage. 

Stanza 6. 'Eavy mar chin' -order. Carrying all the 
kit that would be carried on active service — great- 
coat, knapsack, water-bottle, mess-tin, haversack, 
etc. 

'Alt. Fall in. In mounting the gangway of the 
troopship and passing along its narrow alley-ways, 
the men have to break their ranks. Before they are 
dismissed and assigned to their quarters on the ship, 
therefore, they ' fall in' or re-form in line on the deck. 

The pessimistic note of the last stanza is probably 
largely due to dislike of the prospect of a long and 
uncomfortable voyage on a densely crowded ship, and 
the present discomfort and wearisomeness of march- 
ing, halting, marching again, missing a meal, and 
being generally 'messed about.' Those who regulate 
the movements of troops seem to find it expedient, in 
order to prevent any possibility of delay, to call them 
out several hours before it is really necessary. 

177 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

'SOLDIER AND SAILOR TOO' 

Stanza I. The Ditch. The Suez Canal, 

Regulars. The regular army troops, so called to 
distinguish them from the now abolished 'Volunteers,' 
or the existing 'Territorials/ 

Jolly. A marine. The origin of the term is not 
complimentary. The sailors gave the name to the 
marines because they considered that their relative 
importance as compared with the seamen was as 
that of the yawl or 'jolly-boat' to the ship itself. 
Marines are soldiers, either infantry or artillery, who 
serve on board ship. The idea of sending soldiers to 
sea originated in 1664, at a time when seamen in the 
king's ships were pressed men, and, consequently, 
badly disciplined — the function of the marines was 
then to keep the seamen in order and to 'stiffen' them 
during an engagement. At sea the principal duty 
of the marine is to mount guard in parts of the ship 
where sentries are considered necessary. His fatigue 
duties are much the same as those of the seamen. 
Seamen of the Royal Navy do not consider the marine 
officers hard worked. The answer to the naval riddle, 
'Who works harder, the chaplain or the captain of 
marines?' is 'The chaplain, because he does nothing 
and has no one to help him, but the captain of marines 
does nothing and has two officers to help him.' 

Harumfrodite. Hermaphrodite, having a dual func- 
tion. 

178 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 2. Cosmopolouse. Cosmopolitan. 

Stanza 3. A double fatigue. (See 'The Young 
British Soldier/ stanza 6, p. 41.) 

Bernardmyo. A station in Burma named after 
Sir Charles Bernard. 

Procrastitues. Procrastinators, idlers. 

Stanza 4. You may say we are fond of an 'arness- 
cut, or 'ootin in bar rick-yards, 
Or startin a Board School mutiny along 
o' the Onion Guards. 

Some little time before these verses were written 
a regiment was guilty of organised misconduct and 
was sent to Bermuda, a very unpopular station, as 
a punishment. As the staple product of Bermuda is 
onions, the regiment for a while got the nickname 
of the Onion Guards. Harness-cutting is the usual 
method adopted by soldiers who wish to call attention 
to grievances, such as the issue of bad rations, of 
which their orderly officers refuse to take notice. 

Stanza 5. Cover. Something to protect one when 
fighting, such as a rock, gully, wall, ant-hill, or tree- 
trunk. 

Birken ead. In 1852 the troopship Birkenhead 
went down between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape 
Agulhas. She was loaded with troops for the ' Kaffir 
War' against the Gaikas. Many of the soldiers on 
board were youngsters who had never seen active 
service, yet the conduct of all under exceptionally 
trying circumstances was admirable. The Birken- 

179 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

head was insufficiently provided with boats. The 
men were paraded on deck to wait their turn to be 
taken off, and when the ship sank, those who were 
still on board preserved their formation, and cheered 
as the ship sank. The report of their exemplary 
conduct created a great impression in England and 
on the Continent. 

Stanza 6. The sinkin Victorier. In 1893, when 
the Mediterranean fleet was manoeuvring in two 
columns off the coast of Syria, Admiral Tryon made 
the signal for the course to be inverted, the ships to 
turn inward in succession. During the execution of 
the manoeuvre the Camperdown collided with the 
Victoria, Admiral Tryon's flagship, and sank her. 
Admiral Tryon together with 355 officers and men 
were drowned. The captain of the Camperdown was 
exonerated from blame, as he had carried out explicit 
orders. Tryon had a reputation for ordering risky 
manoeuvres, and it was pointed out at the time that 
the facing of risk is an essential part of a naval 
officer's training. 

Widow. Her late Majesty Queen Victoria. 

SAPPERS 

The rank of sapper is the lowest rank in the Corps 
of Royal Engineers, corresponding to private or trooper 
in the infantry or cavalry. During the first half 
of the nineteenth century there was a corps entitled 
'The Royal Sappers and Miners'; it was distinct from 

180 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

the Corps of Royal Engineers, but its officers belonged 
to that corps. After the Crimean War the two corps 
were amalgamated. The primary duty of a military 
engineer is the construction of fortifications and siege- 
works, but most of the work to which the growth of 
science has given a military importance — such as 
telegraphy, railway making, etc. — has been entrusted 
to the Engineers. 

Stanza 3. Fatigue. (See 'The Young British Sol- 
dier,' stanza 6, p. 41.) 

Stanza 9. The Line. Infantry, foot-soldiers (not 
Guards). 

Stanza 11. Under escort. Much of the work of 
the sappers must necessarily be done under fire. This 
fire is checked as far as possible by an escort of rifle- 
men stationed near where the sappers are at work. 
Nevertheless it requires courage of a very high order 
to proceed calmly at such work as the building of a 
pontoon bridge, or blasting rocks, while bullets are 
flying, without the satisfaction of retaliating. 

Stanza 14. They grudge us adornin the billets of 
-peace. This is the soldiers' point of view. The 
civilian opinion is given in 'Public Waste' {Depart- 
mental Ditties). 

Stanza 15. Our Colonels are Methodist, married 
or mad. That the Engineers are Methodist, married 
or mad, is an old saying in the army, the origin and 
reason of which it is hard to trace. (Their 'madness' 
is perhaps due to the fact that they have to pass 

181 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

stiffer examinations than officers in other branches of 
the army.) They are better paid and can therefore 
afford to marry earlier. Some famous engineer offi- 
cers, such as General Gordon, have been noted for 
their piety. 

THAT DAY 

Stanza 2. Sove-ki-poo. Tommy's rendering of 
the phrase 'sauve-qui-peut' (save himself who can). 

Stanza 7. We was put to groomin camels. With- 
drawn from fighting duties and sent to the lines of 
communication, where such necessary but compara- 
tively safe duties as guarding convoys, handling 
camels, etc., would be assigned to them. 

'THE MEN THAT FOUGHT AT MINDEN' 

Stanza 1. Minden. A battle in the Seven Years' 
War (1759) in which the French cavalry were routed 
by British infantry. 

Rookies. Recruits. 

Maiwand. A disastrous battle in which a British 
Indian Brigade was routed by Afghans. The Afghans 
outflanked the Brigade, the artillery ran out of ammu- 
nition, and the native portion of the British Indian 
force got out of hand. The troops were scattered 
and had to get back to Kandahar as best they could. 
The battle and the retreat that followed are notable 
for the many acts of daring and self-sacrifice per- 
formed by individual officers and men. 

182 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 2. Fatigue it was their pride, and they 
would not be denied 
To clean the cook- 'ouse floor. 

Besides parades, musketry practice, and other mili- 
tary duties, soldiers necessarily have to do all the 
domestic work, from weeding the barrack-yard to 
carrying coals, that life in barracks necessitates. 
Such non-military duties are called 'fatigues,' and 
are exceedingly unpopular with the men (cf. Many 
Inventions, in which Mulvaney's objection to being 
told off to carry tents gets him into trouble). It may 
be doubted whether the soldiers who fought at Min- 
den were any fonder of fatigue duties than the soldiers 
of the present day, but the old hand, who is here 
advising recruits, is justified in holding them up for 
admiration at the expense of strict historical accuracy. 

Stanza 3. ' And-grenades. Hand-grenades were 
weapons used in addition to other arms by some 
British and foreign regiments during the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries. They became obsolete in 
the nineteenth century, but were used in the twentieth 
by the Japanese during the siege of Port Arthur. It 
was at one time the custom to form in each English 
battalion a company of picked men to use grenades. 
The Grenadier Guards have for their badge a bursting 
grenade. 

Clubbed their field -parades. When a company 
wheels in line if one man moves at the wrong pace the 
whole line will be thrown out and 'club' or bunch in 

183 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

the middle. Such an act of clumsiness would be a 
greater offence, because more conspicuous, at a field 
parade than at an ordinary parade. 

Stanza 4. Grouse. Grumble. 

Stanza 5. Musketoons. Clumsy, large bore, short- 
barrelled match-lock guns. 

' ' Alberdiers. Halberds — weapons that consisted of 
a long staff that had at its end an elongated pike-head 
with an axe on one side and a pick on the other — were 
almost obsolete by the time Minden was fought. 
They were still, however, carried by sergeants in some 
infantry regiments. 

Stanza 8. Rooks. Rookies, recruits. 

Stanza 10. Core. Corps. 

CHOLERA CAMP 

Stanza 3. Nullahs. Water-courses, ravines. 

Stanza 4. Under normal conditions a major com- 
mands each wing of a battalion, a captain commands 
a company — about 120 men — and a lieutenant half a 
company. Lance in this case means a lance-corporal 
(the lowest grade above private) acting as sergeant. 
Eight file consists of eight men in the front and the 
same number in the rear rank — sixteen in all — where- 
as a sergeant should command a section of thirty men. 

Stanza 6. Padre. Literally the Portuguese for 
'father/ Applied by the Portuguese to their priests, 
it has been adopted into the slang of the British army 
for a clergyman of any denomination. While cholera 

184 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

or other epidemic disease is about, it is the duty of the 
officers to do their utmost to keep the men in good 
spirits by organising camp concerts and other enter- 
tainments (cf. 'Onlya Subaltern' {Under theDeodars), 
in which Bobby Wick devoted himself to 'comforting 
the panic stricken with rude speech, and more than 
once tending the dying who had no friends . . . 
organising, with banjos and burnt cork, sing-songs 
which should allow the talent of the regiment full 

play'). 

Stanza 8. 'Cause we've found it doesn't pay. It is 
a recognised fact that the mind can influence the body 
in resisting or giving way to disease. As an Irish 
army doctor once said, 'If you tell a man what's 
wrong with him he'll get it for a certainty.' 

Last stanza. Flies. Parts of a tent that form a 
second roof and thus increase its efficiency. 

THE MOTHER-LODGE 

The term 'Lodge' in freemasonry means the meet- 
ing-place of a branch of the craft. Modern free- 
masons are said to derive their organisation from the 
craftsmen that raised English cathedrals and other 
great buildings during the Middle Ages. When a 
building was in course of erection a small temporary 
structure was built close by in which stones, the 
method of cutting which it was desirable to keep se- 
cret, were prepared. In this structure, also, the 
craftsmen had their midday meals and discussed 

185 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

matters of interest to their guild. This building — - 
the name first occurs in 1370— was called the loge.. 
And the term has thus in the course of generations 
been amplified to mean not only the meeting-place 
of a branch of the craft, but also the members of the 
craft who assemble there. 

Originally a freemason was taught that 'he must 
love wel God and holy Church algate and hys master 
also that he ys wythe.' Adherence to the Christian 
Church is not now demanded, and membership of the 
craft is open to men of every creed, caste, or colour. 
Belief in the Great Architect of the Universe is, how- 
ever, essential. The Lodge in which a freemason is 
first initiated is called his 'mother-lodge.' 

Stanza 1. Conductor-Sargent. A warrant officer 
in the Commissariat Department. 

Europe-shop. A shop in which European products 
of a miscellaneous kind, from sofas to patent medi- 
cines, are sold. Such shops in India are usually kept 
by Parsees. 

Chorus. The Level and the Square are two of the 
six jewels in a Lodge's regalia. The Level symbolises 
the equality of all freemasons, and the Square sym- 
bolises the honourable conduct required of them. 
Hence the colloquial expression 'to act on the square/ 
The other jewels are the rough ashlar, the perfect 
ashlar, the trestle, and the plumb-line. 

Junior Deacon. The fourth and fifth officers of a 
Lodge are called deacons. It is their duty to receive 

186 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

at the Lodge visitors as to whose standing as free- 
masons no doubt arises. 

Stanza 2. The principal races and creeds of India 
as disclosed by their names are represented here. 
Framjee Eduljee is a Parsee name; Bola Nath, that of 
a Hindoo from the United Provinces; Din Moham- 
med, that of a Mohammedan; Baby Chuckerbutty, 
that of a Bengali; and Castro, an Eurasian who in- 
herits his name, his religion, and the white element 
in his blood from a remote Portuguese ancestor. 

Stanza 3 . The Ancient Landmarks are the twenty- 
five leading principles of freemasonry. One of these 
is a sincere belief in the Great Architect of the Uni- 
verse. Another is the recognition of the equality of 
all freemasons. 

Stanza 4. Labour. The solemn ceremonials, such 
as initiations, which take place when a Lodge meets. 

We dursn't give no banquits. Mohammedans and 
Jews cannot eat meat the slaughter of which has not 
been accompanied by certain ceremonies. A Hindoo 
cannot eat meat that has been cooked by a man of a 
lower caste than himself, and would feel insulted if 
cooked beef were brought into his presence. Sikhs 
will not eat meat or drink wine. 

Stanza 5. Shiva. The third god in the Hindu 
supreme trinity. He is The Destroyer, and as, ac- 
cording to Hindu belief, death is admission to a 
new form of life, he is styled the Bright or Happy 
One. 

187 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

Stanza 7. Trichies. Coarse cheap cigars made in 
Trichinopoly in southern India. 

Master. The highest of the three degrees in free- 
masonry. 

'FOLLOW ME 'OME' 

Chorus. Swipes. Beer. 

Note that the chorus runs roughly to the tune of 
the 'Dead March in Saul/ 

Stanza 3. Bombardier. An artillery non-com- 
missioned officer ranking below a corporal. 

Stanza 5. Stripe. The chevron awarded for good 
conduct during two years' service, worn on the left 
arm by private soldiers. The right to wear it 
is accompanied by extra pay daily of id. for each 
stripe. A quarter of a century ago the general 
conduct of British soldiers was less good than to- 
day. Then it was exceptional for a man to be able 
to keep his stripe, now it is seldom forfeited for mis- 
conduct. 

Last two stanzas. A soldier who dies when with 
the colours is entitled to a military funeral. His 
coffin is carried on a gun-carriage and the band plays 
slow music. Soldiers line the approach to the grave 
leaning on their arms reversed, i. e. the muzzles of 
their rifles pointed downwards. After the service 
three rounds of blank cartridge are fired over the 
grave and the bugler plays the beautiful long wailing 
notes of the ' Last Post/ 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

THE SERGEANT'S WEDDIN' 

Stanza 2. 'E's a bloomin robber ', 

An ' e keeps canteen. 

The canteen is the regimental beer-shop, open at 
stated hours. It is part of the regimental institute, 
and is run at a small profit, which is devoted to regi- 
mental sports, purchases of newspapers for the read- 
ing-room, etc. It is managed by a committee of 
officers, but the actual care of it is entrusted to a ser- 
geant. Thanks in a great measure to the efforts of 
Lord Roberts, canteens are now better conducted, 
but it was formerly possible for sergeants to make 
extraordinary profits for themselves by giving short 
measure and charging exorbitant prices for liquor 
sold at unauthorised hours, practices which the sol- 
diers' code of honour did not allow them to report. 

Stanza 4. Side arms. Bayonets worn in sheaths 
in the belts. 

Dressin (see note ' Back to the Army Again,' stanza 

3,P-i74)- 

Stanza 5. Voice that breathed o'er Eden. The 
first line of a well-known hymn frequently sung dur- 
ing the marriage service. 

THE JACKET 

The incident recorded in this poem occurred in the 
war against Arabi. It was not the first time that a 
battery had charged. During the Peninsular War a 

189 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

battery charged French cavalry and carried off the 
French ' Eagles.' Since then it has been known as 
the ' Eagle' troop, and carries an eagle on the metal 
work of its harness. 

Stanza i. Arabi. Ahmad Arabi, War Minister 
and practically Dictator of Egypt in 1882, defeated 
by Sir Garnet Wolseley at Tel-el-Kebir. 

The Captain 'ad 'is jacket. Officers in the Royal 
Horse Artillery are promoted from the Field Artillery. 
An officer thus promoted will wear a very gorgeous 
gold-laced tight-fitting jacket in place of the com- 
paratively unadorned tunic that he wore in the Field 
Artillery. When he is promoted, therefore, he is said 
to 'get his jacket/ 

The wettin of the jacket. The celebration of his 
promotion by providing liquor to be drunk by those 
under him. 

Stanza 2. A sand redoubt. An earthwork erected 
to serve the purpose of a temporary fort. 

Axle-arms. The lockers on the gun itself, in which 
a supply of emergency ammunition is kept. The 
main supply is carried in ammunition waggons, and 
that for immediate use in the limbers. 

Case. Case-shot, a projectile used for firing at 
close quarters. It consists of a thin metal case con- 
taining a large number of bullets which scatter when 
the envelope bursts. It is now rarely employed, its 
place being usually taken by shrapnel with the fuse 
set at zero. Shrapnel is similar to case but with this 

190 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

distinction: case-shot is not provided with a fuse, it 
explodes on leaving the gun and is not therefore effec- 
tive at any but short range (four hundred yards in 
the case of field-guns) ; shrapnel, on the other hand, 
is provided with a fuse by means of which the gunner 
can burst his shells at any desired point from close 
quarters up to three thousand yards. 

Crackers. Ammunition. 

Stanza 5. Loosin 'igh an wide. Firing wildly 
and without aim. 

Glassy. Glacis, the long mound of earth thrown 
up to offer cover to those in the redoubt. To get a 
vehicle over such an obstacle it would be necessary 
to drive it sideways up its face — hence the command 
'right incline/ 

Limberful. The two parts of a gun-carriage are the 
gun itself and the limber in which ammunition for the 
gun is carried. 

Brut. The soldiers probably saw the last word on 
the label of the champagne bottle and applied it to 
the liquor generally. 

THE 'EATHEN 

Stanza 2. 'E draf s from Gawd knows where. Re- 
cruits are enlisted at the regimental depots in England 
which are situated within the area from which the re- 
cruits are supposed to be drawn. After a period of 
training they are ' drafted ' to wherever the battalion of 
the regiment to which they have been assigned maybe. 

191 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

'E calls it bloomin nonsense. Part of a private 
soldier's duties is to submit his kit periodically to 
inspection, so that any deficiencies may be noted and 
replaced — at the soldier's expense. When laid out 
for inspection, every article must be placed in a par- 
ticular position, his clothes-brush in one place, his 
needle and thread case in another. The reason for 
this particularity is partly to teach the soldier to be 
methodical — among the most important of the lessons 
he must learn — and partly because kits may be in- 
spected much more quickly and efficiently if arranged 
according to a definite plan than if the arrangement 
of each is left to the taste and fancy of its individual 
owner. Nevertheless a recruit too inexperienced to 
understand the reasons that underlie the regulations 
he has to obey is apt to feel injured if he is reprimanded 
for placing his boots in the particular spot that should 
have been occupied by his razor. Because much of 
the education of a recruit can best be instilled by his 
comrades, a whole room full of men will be blamed 
if the kit of one of their number is carelessly arranged. 
Should this occur the men will probably find some 
fairly effective way of reprimanding the delinquent 
as soon as the inspection is over. 

Stanza 3. 'E '11 swing for. For murdering whom 
he will be hanged. 

Stanza 5. You 'ear 'im slap 'is boot. That is 
with the swagger-cane which he is taught by regimen- 
tal etiquette to carry. It is wonderful how much 

192 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

self-confidence may be imparted to a shambling, 
bashful man who does not know what to do with his 
hands by giving him a cane to play with. 

Bars and rings. The paraphernalia of the gym- 
nasium in which the recruit has to exercise. Gymna- 
sium exercise is as important as drill in making an 
efficient soldier; a man who proves to be a poor shot 
often improves after undergoing an additional course 
of gymnastics. 

Stanza 6. 'Lance.'' Lance-Corporal. As such 
the soldier still has the pay of a private only, but the 
acting rank of a non-commissioned officer. During 
his probation as lance-corporal he will show whether 
he is fit to have his promotion confirmed. 

Stanza 8. Colour-Sergeant. The senior sergeant 
of a company of about one hundred and twenty men. 
He is responsible for a good deal of administrative 
work in connection with his company and on parade. 
He escorts the regimental colour when this is carried. 

Core. Corps. 

Stanza 10. He'll see their socks are right. A 
colour-sergeant, adequately to fill his position, should 
have somewhat of the feelings of a mother towards 
those under him. He should keep the cooks up to 
their work, so that the men do not have to march on 
an empty stomach in the morning. If his company is 
mounted he should keep a look-out for sore backs 
among the horses. No detail that makes for efficiency 
is too trivial to receive the attention of a good colour- 

i93 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

sergeant. It was to a large extent the absence of this 
maternal spirit in officers of all ranks that made 
France so easy a prey to Germany in 1870. 

Sight. Aim. 

Stanza n. Squad. Half a section of a company 
of thirty men. 

Stanza 14. Doolies. The canvas litters in which 
the wounded are carried off the battlefield. 

TflE SHUT-EYE SENTRY 

Stanza 1 . Orderly Orfcer. An officer is appointed 
every twenty-four hours to be orderly officer for the 
day. It is his duty at intervals during the night to 
visit the various sentry posts in order to see that the 
sentries are awake and alert, and to inspect the guard 
in the guard-room or guard-tent. The men in the 
guard-room, who take it in turn to mount guard, are 
allowed to sleep, but must remain fully dressed so as 
to turn out immediately the sentry on duty calls 
them to do so. The orderly officer's rounds are 
called 'visiting rounds/ An officer of higher rank 
to the orderly officer is appointed to be field officer 
for the week. While on duty he does not leave bar- 
racks, and takes command in any emergency until 
the arrival of an officer senior to himself. His rounds 
of inspection are called 'grand-rounds/ 

Hokee-mut. Very drunk. 

For the wine was old and the night is cold. The 
effect of cold fresh air on a man who has been drinking 

194 



THE SEVEN SEAS 

incautiously in a warm room is often disastrous — im- 
mediately he comes into the open he is liable to be 
overcome by liquor the effect of which he has till then 
hardly felt. 

Rounds! What Rounds? When the orderly officer 
and his attendants come within earshot of a sentry 
the latter challenges 'Who goes there?' The orderly 
officer replies 'Rounds.' The sentry inquires 'What 
rounds?' The reply is 'Visiting rounds' or 'Grand 
rounds.' The sentry, if no password for the night 
has been ordered, then replies 'Pass, visiting rounds; 
all's well!' unless he is the sentry stationed at the 
guard-room. In this case he will call 'Guard, turn 
out,' and the guard will turn out for inspection. 

Stanza 4. But 'is sergeant pulled him through. 
Probably the sergeant prompted him as to the proper 
words of command to issue, took care that the men 
did not obey any improper order that he gave, and 
shepherded his officer into his correct position of the 
parade. 

Marker. The markers are the soldiers who give 
the alignment to the others. 



195 



The Five Nations 

BEFORE A MIDNIGHT BREAKS IN STORM 

Stanza 3. According to the late Andrew Lang, of 
those who use the crystal-ball for purposes of divina- 
tion, few have quite the same experience. In the case 
of almost every one, the ball gradually assumes a 
milky or misty appearance. Many people can go no 
further than this. In the case of others the mistiness 
gives place to blackness, followed by blankness, after 
which pictures appear in the glass. In rare cases 
the ball seems to disappear, and the gazer finds him- 
self apparently witnessing an actual scene. 

THE SEA AND THE HILLS 

Stanza 1. Comber. A 'breaker' is a wave that 
breaks on a rock or beach. A * comber' is a long, 
curling wave that breaks out at sea. 

The sleek -barrelled swell before storm. The influ- 
ence of a distant storm is felt long before it arrives. 
When the air is still quite calm the water begins to 
heave. The waves in this case are not jagged or 
foam-crested, as are wind-driven waves, but have a 
smooth oily surface from trough to crest. 

Stark calm on the lap of the Line. A belt of almost 

196 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

constant calm extends from the equator to 3 north. 

Stanza 2. The shudder, the stumble, the swerve as 
the star-stabbing bowsprit emerges. The bowsprit is a 
spar projecting from the ship's bows to carry the fore- 
stay. No one unfamiliar with the sea can fully ap- 
preciate the appropriateness of the words here used. 
When a ship is struck by a wave it quivers under the 
blow. Then the bow drops into the trough behind 
the wave so suddenly that the ship seems to stumble 
forwards. As the wave passes and the bow rises to 
the next, the ship swerves from her true course (unless 
the line of the waves is exactly at right angles to the 
ship), because the weight of water on the one side is 
greater than on the other. 

The orderly clouds of the Trades. The Trade Winds 
blow continuously towards the equator from each side 
of it. The North-east Trade from 35 N. to 3 N.; 
the South-east Trade from 28 S. to the equator. 
A ship approaching the region of the Trade Winds can 
see on the horizon masses of cloud that are collected 
and driven by them. 

Unheralded cliff-haunting flaws. Light wind that 
blows off high land is very irregular, as its direction 
and force is modified by the contour of the cliffs. It 
comes in sudden gusts, seldom twice from exactly 
the same quarter. The 'low volleying thunder' of 
the sails occurs when an unexpected gust striking 
them at the wrong angle shakes them violently against 
the masts and sets the braces rattling. 

197 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 3. The unstable mined berg going South, 
and the calvings and groans that declare it. An iceberg 
drifting southward melts more rapidly below the 
water-line than above it. Its centre of gravity is 
thus constantly changing, and at intervals the huge 
mass of ice rolls over in a welter of foam. Sometimes 
a large mass breaks off the parent berg, which is then 
said to 'calve/ The rending growling noise that it 
makes in so doing can be heard for a long distance. 
In foggy weather — the vicinity of ice is usually foggy 
— the noise sometimes gives timely warning to ap- 
proaching ships. 

White water half guessed overside. White water is the 
seaman's word for the foam caused by waves break- 
ing on a reef. (The patches of foam made by waves 
breaking in deep water are called 'white horses/) 
On a thick night, cloudy, dark, and rainy, white water 
shows so dimly that those on watch are often not sure 
whether they see it or only imagine it. 

So and no otherwise — hillmen desire their hills. The 
charm of the hills — their silence, their space, their 
peace — 'the charm that in the end draws all who 
have the least touch of hill-blood in their veins/ is the 
theme of 'The Miracle of Purun Bhagat' {The Second 
Jungle Book). 

THE BELL BUOY 

Stanza 4. Could I speak or be still at the Church's 
will? In the mediaeval Church the Pope had the 

198 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

power of laying a country under an interdict, the 
effect of which was to suspend all public worship, the 
administration of the principal sacraments, the eccle- 
siastical burial of the dead, and, of course, to silence 
all church bells. 

Stanza 7. From bitt to trees. The bitts are posts 
on the deck of a ship to which cables, ropes, etc., are 
made fast. The trees (cross-trees) are horizontal 
timbers at the head of the lower mast that support 
the top-mast. 

CRUISERS 

Stanza 1. Our mother the frigate. During the Na- 
poleonic Wars the frigate was a three-masted, fully 
rigged vessel built for speed. Her duty was to scout 
rather than fight, and also to attempt to decoy the 
enemy's ships towards the heavier and slower and 
more fully armed 'ships of the line' on her own side. 
When iron took the place of wood in shipbuilding, 
the frigate disappeared and the modern cruiser took 
her place, a vessel very differently built but having 
the same duty — to scout, and lure the enemy towards 
her own supporting battleships. When this poem 
was written (1899) cruisers had attained a speed of 
20 knots and battleships 18. Since then cruisers of 
the Dreadnought type have attained 28 and Dread- 
nought battleships 22 knots. 

Stanza 4. Merchant vessels are compelled by in- 
ternational law to carry a headlight at the masthead 
and a coloured light on each side, but warships on 

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THE FIVE NATIONS 

active service steam without lights. The term pot- 
bellied is justified by the fact that the designer of a 
merchant vessel, other than passenger liners, makes 
cargo-carrying capacity his main object. 

Stanza 8. Spindrift. Spray blown from the crests 
of waves. 

Cross-surges. Waves set up by conflicting currents 
or by a swift current at a different angle to the wind. 

Stanza 9. Widder shins. (See note, ' Rhyme of 
the Three Sealers,' line 142, p. 130.) 

Fleereth. Jeers at. So military heliograph signal- 
lers while waiting instructions sometimes pass the 
weary hours by flashing chaff from hilltop to hilltop. 

Stanza 10. Levin. Lightning. 

Their lights, or the Daystar. A star rising above 
the horizon may easily be mistaken for a ship's light. 

DESTROYERS 

A destroyer is a torpedo-boat destroyer. It is 
larger and faster than a torpedo-boat, can carry more 
guns, and can stay longer at sea without putting back 
to port for a fresh supply of coal. Soon after de- 
stroyers came into use it was realised that, in addition 
to their intended work of destroying torpedo-boats, 
they were more suited to do the work of torpedo-boats 
than those boats themselves. They thus tended to 
supplant the type of boat they were designed to 
destroy. The speed of British torpedo-boat de- 
stroyers varies. The Cobra (350 tons), launched in 

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THE FIVE NATIONS 

1899, had a speed of 34 knots; the Swift (1800 tons), 
launched in 1907, a speed of 35 knots; the Beagle (860 
tons), launched in 1909, a speed of 27 knots. 

Stanza 1. Stripped hulls. When a ship is cleared 
for action everything that it is possible to remove 
from the decks, such as boats, ventilators, etc., are 
sent below and awning stanchions are laid flat on the 
deck. 

The Choosers of the Slain. In northern mythology 
spirits of the air named Valkyries hovered over a battle, 
choosing those who were to die and go to Valhalla. 
In Hindoo mythology the same function is performed 
by spirits called Upsaras (see note, 'With Scindia to 
Delhi,' stanza 6, p. 92). 

Stanza 2. Adown the stricken capes no flare — 
No mark on spit or bar. 
During war time a country that fears invasion re- 
moves all buoys from the channels that lead to its 
ports and extinguishes the lights of its lighthouses 
and lightships. The destroyers must therefore do 
their work blindfold. 

Stanza 3 . The up-flung beams that spell 
The council of our foes. 
Among the methods of signalling at sea practised by 
warships is the flashing of light on to the clouds. By 
covering and uncovering a searchlight long or short 
flashes are made, and thus, by means of the Morse 
code, messages are spelt out. The development of 
wireless telegraphy tends to supersede this method. 

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THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 4. Hooded eyne. The searchlights which 
the enemy is flashing on to the sea on the look out for 
destroyers that may be approaching. 

Stanza 5. Crackling tops. Battleships carry at 
their mastheads platforms called 'tops' on which 
quick-firing guns are placed. The noise made by 
a quick-firing gun is very much like the crackle of a 
newly-lit fire. 

Stanza 7. Panic that shells the drifting spar. A 
floating spar, suddenly seen in bad light, may well 
be mistaken for a submarine emerging from the 
water. 

Stanza 8. Lance them to the quick. A metaphor 
borrowed from whale-fishing. When a harpooned 
whale rises to the surface exhausted, the whalers dash 
in and spear it with long lances. 

Stanza 9. Shut down! Shut down stokehold and 
engine-room hatches preparatory to going into action 
with forced draught. 

WHITE HORSES 

White horses. The name given to the patches of 
white foam that are made by waves breaking out at 
sea, as distinct from foam caused by waves breaking 
on a beach or reef. 

Stanza 1. Sargasso weed. In the West Central 
Atlantic, at a point where there is an eddy among the 
great Atlantic currents, the surface of the sea is 
covered by large patches of floating weed, called 

202 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Sargasso weed, from the name of the sea in which it 
is found. 

Stanza 4. Ere yet the deep is stirred. (See note 
on 'The Sea and the Hills,' stanza 1, p. 196.) 

Stanza 5. That rope us where we run. In the 
early days of the settlement of the American prairies, 
cowboys used to ride down herds or 'mobs' of wild 
horses and catch the most valuable with the lasso. 

Stanza 10. The moaning groundswell. The swell 
set up by an approaching storm. 

Bray. Crush to atoms as rock is crushed in a 
mortar. 

THE SECOND VOYAGE 

This poem is an allegory of settled matrimony. 

Stanza 2. The sea has shorn our galleries away. 
Ships of the Tudor and early Stuart period had gal- 
leries running round their sterns. Until a later date 
sterns and bows were ornately carved and gilded. 
All such unpractical additions and ornaments are 
now obsolete. 

Petrels. Mother Carey's chickens (see note, 'An- 
chor Song,' stanza 2, p. 141). Petrels fly close to 
ships in bad weather or when bad weather is brooding, 
but are seldom seen in fine weather. Hence they are 
usually called 'stormy petrels.' 

Stanza 3. Quartermasters on board ship are ex- 
perienced seamen to whom responsible work is en- 
trusted. 

203 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Port o' Paphos mutineer. Some unlicensed little 
cupid sailing from Venus's own port, Paphos. 

Stanza 5. Brace and trim. Alter the position 
of the sails so as to get the fullest advantage of the 
wind as it changes its direction. 

The watch. A ship's company is divided into two 
watches. At night-time one watch keeps the deck 
while the other goes below to rest. Those whose 
watch it is below are called up only when an emergency 
requires all hands. 

Stanza 6. Warp. Sailing vessels that have been 
moored against wharves or quays are warped (or 
hauled out into deep water), before their sails can be 
used, by means of hawsers attached to anchored buoys. 

Hesperides. Islands of delight in Greek myth- 
ology, situated where the sun sets in the ocean, in 
which grow golden apples symbolising love and fruit- 
fulness. 

Saffroned. Saffron was used by the ancient Greeks 
both as a dye and a perfume. 

THE DYKES 

This poem deals with the fate of those who have 
forgotten how to hold the land that the toil of their 
fathers won for them from the sea. The meaning 
of the parable, intended to arouse a nation too well 
satisfied with a sense of national security, is obvious. 

Stanza 2. Sea-gate. The dykes that protect the 
outer margin of land below high-water mark have 

204 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

to be provided with gates to let off the constantly 
accumulating water from inland as the tide falls, and 
to shut out the sea as the tide rises. 

Stanza 6. Saltings. Land behind a dyke where 
brackish water sometimes stands; a term often applied 
to pastures by the seaside. 

Stanza 7. Ninefold deep . . . the galloping 
breakers stride. An allusion to the popular and not 
wholly unfounded belief that each ninth wave is 
bigger than its eight predecessors. 

Till the bents and the furze and the sand are dragged 
out, and the old-time hurdles beneath. The first step 
in the construction of a dyke is to lay down bents 
(bundles of any stiff wiry grass), furze, etc., on a 
foundation of hurdles. Wind-blown sand will bank 
up against the furze, and gradually the dyke will be- 
come firm enough to allow of its being more elabo- 
rately strengthened. At last it will become so strong 
that, so long as it is kept in repair, roads and even 
railways may be laid along its top. 

THE SONG OF THE DIEGO VALDEZ 

Stanza 4. Careen. Ships need to be periodically 
cleansed of the barnacles and weed that gather on 
their sides and bottoms. In the old days crews of 
ships far from port, or unable by reason of their 
crimes to visit a port, used to find some natural har- 
bour, and there, by placing their guns, ballast, etc., 
on one side of the ship, cause it to heel over so that 

205 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

the other side was lifted sufficiently clear of the water 
to be cleaned. This process was called 'careening/ 
Stanza 5. Breaming-fagots. Fire was sometimes 
applied to a ship's bottom to assist in the work of 
cleaning it. This was called 'breaming.' 

THE BROKEN MEN 

Stanza 2. Until recently Callao, a port on the 
Peruvian coast, afforded a haven to fraudulent bank- 
rupts, those who had embezzled trust funds, and others 
who were 'wanted' by the English police. Some 
other South American republics, and some islands in 
the Pacific that did not belong to any of the Great 
Powers, were equally hospitable to men who would 
have been sent to penal servitude at Dartmoor if they 
had remained at home. The extension of extradition 
treaties, however, has greatly restricted the area in 
which criminals can escape the long arm of British 
Law. 

Stanza 5. The daily life of the average Peruvian 
consists of work, not too strenuous, till noon, then 
siesta, then, when the cool of the evening comes, 
recreation. 

Yuccas. Plants with bayonet-shaped leaves com- 
mon in tropical America. 

Jalousies. Sun-blinds made of split cane or wood. 

Stanza 9. Lord Warden. The Lord Warden Ho- 
tel, named after the ancient office of Lord Warden 
of the Cinque Ports, stands near the pier and railway 

206 



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station at Dover. It is therefore the first hotel that 
offers refreshment, liquid or otherwise, to the return- 
ing exile. 

THE FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN 

INTRODUCTORY STANZAS 

Lodge. A Red Indian's wigwam or tent. 

The Smokes of Spring. Cf. the account of the time 
in the Indian jungle when 'all the smells are new and 
delightful' in 'The Spring Running' {Second Jungle 
Book). 

ii 

Lee-boarded luggers. Lee-boards are boards fitted 
to the sides of a flat-bottomed craft that on being let 
down check her drift to leeward. They are hauled up 
when the vessel is running before the wind. 

Threshing. Beating to windward. 

in 

A gentle, yellow pirate. Though the Malays of the 
East Indies were till recently pirates, they are no 
more naturally blood-thirsty than a butcher is neces- 
sarily brutal. They are in fact notably courteous, 
and so gentle by temperament that they have a 
horror even of sky-larking. They were pirates be- 
cause piracy was their profession, just as the Sea 
Dyaks, another very gentle people, were, until they 
came under the rule of Rajah Brooke of Borneo, head- 

207 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

hunters, not because they loved bloodshed, but be- 
cause none of them could marry or enjoy the full 
privileges of manhood until he had a skull of his own 
providing to venerate, and because he believed that 
the health and welfare of a new-born child necessi- 
tated the presentation to its mother of a newly ac- 
quired skull. 

IV 

Ovis Poll. The magnificent wild sheep of the 
Pamir plateau, whose home is 16,000 feet above sea- 
level. It is named after Marco Polo, who met with 
it in the thirteenth century. Its horns, which are 
very large and stand well out from the head instead 
of curling round as in most sheep, are much coveted 
by big-game hunters. 

Spoor. A Dutch word adopted by African hunters 
for an animal's footprints. Hunters read many signs 
which the untrained eye might see without under- 
standing. Thus if vultures are seen circling in the 
sky it is an indication of lions round a carcass down 
below. They would not be circling if they had not 
seen a carcass, and they would not be wasting time 
in the air if they were not afraid to descend. 

THE TRUCE OF THE BEAR 

This poem is held to have a political significance. 
The bear is the totem of Russia, India's most power- 
ful neighbour. 

208 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza i. The pass called Muttianee. In 'The 
Miracle of Purun Bhagat' (Second Jungle Book), Sir 
Purun Dass, after becoming a mendicant, passed 
through Simla and mounted the Himalaya-Thibet 
road till 'he had put the Muttianee Pass behind him/ 

Stanza 2. Adam-zad. Owing to the resemblance 
between the anatomy of a man and that of a bear, 
shikarris of Kashmir call the latter Adam-zad — the 
son of Adam. 

THE OLD MEN 

Stanza 3. Plough the sands. The originator of 
this futile performance was Ulysses. He had pledged 
his word to join in protecting Helen if need should 
ever arise. When he was called upon to redeem his 
promise he did not wish to leave his wife. In the 
hope that he would be regarded as insane, and there- 
fore released from his obligation, he yoked a horse 
and a bull together, ploughed the seashore, and sowed 
salt instead of grain. 

THE EXPLORER 

As the scene of this poem might be laid in almost 
any unexplored land in a temperate climate, the 
colloquial expressions used are not those of any one 
country. Some of them are primarily Australian, 
such as 'station/ 'blazed,' 'ringed,' and 'Never-never 
country.' 'Foothills,' 'trail,' and 'Norther' are 
American expressions. 

209 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza I. Tucked away below the foothills where 
the trails run out and stop. Foothills are the com- 
paratively low hills that lie on the flanks of great 
mountain ranges. A feature of such country, if it is 
grazed by game or cattle, is that well-defined trails 
lead from the drinking-places on the plains to the 
bases of the hills, where they fade away. The ex- 
planation of this is that pasture is better and sweeter 
on the well-drained hillside than on the level alluvial 
plains, where it is coarse and rank. Cattle therefore 
graze for choice among the hills, and only come down 
on to the plains to drink. As cattle naturally take 
the shortest cut to water, moving in small herds in 
single file and without spreading to feed, they make 
well-defined paths from the grazing-grounds to the 
drinking-places and back again. As they spread out 
on returning to the grazing-ground these tracks do 
not continue for any considerable distance beyond 
the level, but become faint and shortly disappear. 

Stanza 3. Pack. Gear such as blankets, cooking 
utensils, food, etc., carried on a pack-horse. 

The faith that moveth mountains. Cf. Matthew 
xxi. 21: 'If ye have faith, and doubt not . . . 
if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, 
and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done/ 

Whipping up and leading down. A good horseman 
does not ride up and down steep pinches unless he is 
in a great hurry. A horse cannot be easily led up a 
steep place, as he hangs back and strains at the bridle. 

210 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

It is better therefore to drive him from behind, urging 
him when necessary. (A horse cannot kick when he 
is on a steep slope, as he would lose his balance if he 
tried to do so.) He will go down hill more willingly 
and should therefore be led, lest on reaching level 
ground he should take it into his head to gallop away. 

Stanza 4. Headed back for lack of grass. A trav- 
eller who takes horses for any considerable distance 
must depend for their food on whatever pasture he 
can find, as a horse will soon eat as much forage as 
it can carry. If he finds himself on a long barren 
stretch he will turn back to the nearest grass and 
give his horses a long rest and time to lay up a store 
of energy before facing it again. Where water is 
scarce, however, he is sometimes in such a position 
that, knowing how long it is since he last found water, 
to go back would be certain death. He must then 
go on at all costs, however slender may be his chances 
of finding water on ahead. 

Stanza 5. Norther. An American term for a 
strong wind off the snows and accompanied by intense 
cold. Sometimes it reduces the temperature 50 F. 
in twenty-four hours. Originally used in Texas, 
where it is a true north wind, it has been misapplied 
to cold winds generally. (Cf. the use of the word 
in 'The Merchantmen,' stanza 5, for the wind off the 
Andes.) 

Stanza 7. Flowers stand cold better than almost 
any kind of vegetation except moss and lichens. 

211 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

They grow in profusion in the Arctic as well as at 
high altitudes. Aloes need a higher temperature. 
Thorn-bearing plants abound in dry or exposed windy 
places, because as the giving off of water is one of the 
chief functions of leaves, desert plants economise 
their strength by producing thorns instead. Desert 
plants, moreover, being slow of growth would quickly 
be eaten down if their thorns did not protect them. 

Stanza 10. White Mans Country. A country in 
which white men can live, do manual labour and rear 
families without physical degeneration. Countries 
where this is impossible — such as the East Indies, the 
Philippine Islands, India, etc., where the white man 
is an aristocrat and directs the labour of coloured men 
— have been called in contradistinction 'Sahibs' 
country.' 

Stanza n. Chose my trees and blazed and ringed 
9 em. An explorer's easiest way of making rough land- 
marks is to 'blaze' trees by cutting large, easily notice- 
able squares in their bark. Where there is no timber 
he makes cairns of stones (see stanza 15). Trees are 
'ringed' (or ring-barked) by cutting a ring in the 
bark right round the trunk. This stops the circula- 
tion of the sap and kills the tree. Incidentally it 
greatly improves the pasture below it. 

Saul he went to look for donkeys, and by God he found 
a kingdom. Cf. 1 Samuel ix. 3-27, x. 1-24. 

Stanza 13. Read. The unit of water-power. 

Stanza 14. Tracked me by the camps I'd quitted, 

212 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

used the water-holes I'd hollowed. The marks of an 
abandoned camp are principally the ashes of the 
camp fire, dry grass or leaves that have been pulled 
for bedding, and possibly firewood that has been 
gathered but not used. A camp that has been used 
for several days will also probably have the ruins of a 
bough-shelter, and a framework of saplings erected to 
support the billycan or kettle above the fire. Water 
may often be obtained where none is visible by dig- 
ging in the beds of apparently dry watercourses. 

Stanza 18. Never-never country. A term applied 
to the desolate wastes of central and northern Aus- 
tralia, possibly because so many of the explorers and 
prospectors who-^enetrated it in the early days never 
came back. 

THE BURIAL 

Stanza 2. So brief the term allowed. Some years 
before his death Rhodes, knowing that he had at best 
but a few years to live (constitutional weakness had 
driven him at the age of seventeen to seek relief in the 
Natal climate) said, 'There are so many things I want 
to do in South Africa, and I have got only so many 
years to do them in/ His dying words were, 'So 
little done: so much to do! Good-bye. God bless 
you.' So little done! Rhodes extended British do- 
minions from southern Bechuanaland to the shores of 
Lake Tanganyika and was the determining factor in 
retaining Uganda for the British Empire. 

213 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 3. Great spaces washed with sun. Rhodes 
was buried at a spot chosen by himself in the Matoppo 
Hills, and commanding a view — a valley set within an 
amphitheatre of hills — which he declared to be the 
finest view in the world. The majestic, silent rock- 
crowned hills standing up above vast rolling downs 
make a fit resting-place for the dreamer of great 
dreams. 

The Death he dared. Four months after the out- 
break of the second Matabele War the natives with- 
drew to a practically impregnable position in the 
Matoppo Hills. Realising that they could be sub- 
dued only at an immense cost to the lives both of 
themselves and the British forces, Rhodes determined 
to attempt to pacify them without further bloodshed. 
He pitched his tent between the Matabele and the 
British camp, sent a message to the former that he 
wished to negotiate peace with them, and for six weeks 
waited unguarded for a reply. The Matabele invited 
him to attend a council in the depths of the hills 
where no armed force could touch them. Rhodes, 
accompanied by Dr. Hans Sauer and Mr. J. Colen- 
brander, immediately rode unarmed to the appointed 
place and successfully laid down the terms on which 
he would agree to peace. So greatly did the per- 
sonality of Rhodes impress the Matabele, that when 
a bare-headed statue of him was erected in Buluwayo 
they earnestly petitioned that it should be provided 
with headgear, for they believed that until this was 

214 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

done a drought would be caused by the heavens re- 
fusing to rain on his image. 

GENERAL JOUBERT 

Petrus Jacobus Joubert, commandant-general of the 
South African Republic from 1 880-1 890, was, in the 
words of Sir George White, the defender of Ladysmith, 
'a soldier and a gentleman, and a brave and honour- 
able opponent/ Lord Roberts, writing to condole 
with Kruger on the death of Joubert, said, 'His per- 
sonal gallantry was only surpassed by his humane 
conduct and chivalrous bearing under all circum- 
stances.' In his public life Joubert was free from 
corruption. On several occasions he urged the futility 
of war against Britain, and had his counsels been 
followed there would have been no war, tor he advo- 
cated the redressing of the Uitlander's grievances. 
Nevertheless he took command of the Boer forces on 
the outbreak of hostilities. Before very long, how- 
ever, his health failed him, and a month after the 
relief of Ladysmith he died. In the words of Presi- 
dent Kruger, his political opponent, 'he died as he had 
lived, on the path of puty and honour.' 

THE PALACE 

In countries that were once the seats of ancient 
civilisations excavators often find that one town has 
been built upon, and to some extent with, the ruins of 
another, which in its day was built on the site of a 

215 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

still older town. In excavating the ruins of ancient 
Babylon, for instance, Professor Koldeway had first 
to clear away modern Arab dwellings. Beneath 
these were Parthian habitations. The opening of the 
next stratum revealed remains of Greek settlements. 
At last, beneath a huge mound, Professor Koldeway 
discovered the remains of a vast building, constructed 
of large square tiles, cemented with asphalt, each of 
which was stamped with the name of Nebuchadnezzar. 

Stanza 2. Footings. Foundations. 

Stanza 3. Quoins. Stones placed at the angle 
made by two walls. 

Ashlars. Dressed stones used in the facings of walls. 

Stanza 6. Sheers. Appliances used for the mechan- 
ical lifting of heavy weights. 

SUSSEX ' 

The wonderful charm of Sussex colours much of 
Mr. Rudyard Kipling's later work. In 'The Knife 
and the Naked Chalk' {Rewards and Fairies) are some 
admirable pen-pictures of the Downs. The scenes of 
'They' and 'Below the Mill Dam' in Traffics and 
Discoveries, of 'An Habitation Enforced' in Actions 
and Reactions, of many of the stories in Rewards and 
Fairies, and of most of those in Puck of Pook's Hill, 
are laid in Sussex. 

Stanza 1. And see that it is good. Cf. Genesis 
i. 31: 'And God saw every thing that He had made, 
and, behold, it was very good.' 

216 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 2. Levukas Trade. The trade-wind that 
sweeps the Fiji Islands. Levuka is on a small island 
between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Until 1882 it 
was the capital of the archipelago. 

The lot has fallen to me. Cf. Psalm xvi. 7 (Prayer- 
Book version): 'The lot is fallen unto me in a fair 
ground : yea, I have a goodly heritage.' 

Stanza 3 (see note to 'A Three-part Song/ p. 277). 

Stanza 4. The barrow and the camp. Barrows or 
funeral mounds of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages 
have been found at Bow Hill, Bury Hill, Bignor Hill, 
Steyning, and other parts of Sussex. There are an- 
cient British and Roman camps at the Devil's Dyke, 
Ditchling Beacon, Hollingsbury Castle, Whitehawk 
Hill, Mount Caburn, Rook's Hill, Cissbury, and 
Chanctonbury. In several places the Romans occu- 
pied camps that had been made many centuries be- 
fore the Roman invasion by men of the Neolithic or 
'new stone age' (see note 'Puck's Song,' stanzas 9 
and 10, p. 275). 

Stanza 6. Only the dezvpond on the height 
Unfed, that never fails. 
At various points on the Downs are remarkable reser- 
voirs made by men of the Neolithic or later Stone 
Age. These are called 'dewponds,' because the 
water they contain is the product not of springs but 
of condensed dew. The making of a dewpond neces- 
sitated much labour and care. An excavation was 
made in the chalk on the hilltop and lined with dry 

217 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

straw, on top of which was laid a layer of finely pud- 
dled clay. The reservoir thus made rapidly filled 
with water even when no rain fell. The explanation 
of this phenomenon is as follows: During the heat 
of the day the chalk becomes hot, but the clay, kept 
from contact with the chalk by the layer of non- 
conducting material, is chilled by evaporation from 
its surface. The consequence is that during the 
night the moisture of the comparatively warm air is 
condensed on the surface of the colder clay. As con- 
densation during the night is greater than the evapo- 
ration during the day, the pond gradually fills (see a 
fascinating book, Neolithic Dezvponds and Cattlezvays, 
by A. J. and G. Hubbard). If a stream finds its way 
into the pond, the latter loses its power of condensing 
dew owing to the straw becoming damp and ceasing 
to act as a non-conductor. In the driest weather the 
ponds are fullest. Thus 'unfed, they never fail/ 

The following suggestion as to how our remote 
ancestors stumbled on a principle in thermo-dynam- 
ics is put forward by the writer of these notes for 
what it is worth. Primitive man, knowing nothing of 
the potter's wheel, moulded his pots on plaited straw. 
Perhaps the makers of the dewponds, whose camps 
on the heights were far from the natural water-supply 
of the valleys, conceived the idea of making on the 
hilltop a gigantic reservoir by the same method, 
though on a far larger scale, as that by which they 
made their pots, intending subsequently to fill it by 

218 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

hand or leave it to be filled by rain. If this is what 
they did, no doubt Nature intervened, when the 
process was nearly complete, and filled the pond for 
them. The authors of Neolithic Dewponds and Cattle- 
ways believe these ponds, and the camps which adjoin 
them, to be from 4000 to 6000 years old. The ponds 
are protected by earthworks. 

For a reconstruction of the life of those who made 
the ponds, see 'The Knife and the Naked Chalk' in 
Rewards and Fairies. 

Stanza 7. Little lost Down churches. One of the 
Down churches, that of Lullington under Winddoor 
Hill, is probably the smallest in England. It stands 
in a hollow a few yards from, but out of sight of, the 
road. The inside area is about sixteen feet square, 
and if crowded to its utmost it can hold about thirty 
people. Traces of ruins in the churchyard show that 
the church was formerly larger than it is at present. 

The heathen kingdom Wilfrid found. In the seventh 
century the kingdom of the South Saxons was to a 
great extent cut off from neighbouring English king- 
doms — on east and west by marshes, and on the 
north by the forest of the Weald (Celtic Andredsweald, 
i. e. the uninhabited forest). The sloping beaches of 
the coast made it also particularly liable to invasion 
by pirates. It is natural, therefore, that heathenism 
should have lingered longer in Sussex than in other 
parts of England. A ship in which Wilfrid, Arch- 
bishop of York, was sailing homeward from France 

219 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

was driven ashore on the Sussex coast. The inhabi- 
tants gathered to loot whatever might be washed 
ashore, and one of their number began to practise 
magical arts, designed to hasten the wrecking of the 
ship. One of Wilfrid's men slung a stone at the 
wizard and killed him, whereupon a fight began. 
Wilfrid's men, one hundred and twenty in number, 
held their ground so well that only five of them were 
killed. The Saxons were preparing to attack the 
third time when the tide, rising before its time, floated 
the ship, and Wilfrid and his men escaped. About 
twenty years later, Wilfrid, having been driven from 
York, came as a missionary to the South Saxons. 
According to Bede, no rain had fallen for three years. 
Wilfrid relieved the famine that resulted by teaching 
the people to fish. In gratitude for this they con- 
sented to be baptized. On the day fixed for the cere- 
mony rain fell in torrents, and the famine was ended. 
St. Wilfrid established a monastery and cathedral at 
Selsey, on a spot now covered by the sea. (See 'The 
Conversion of St. Wilfrid' in Rewards and Fairies.) 

Stanza 9. Scarp. The steepest side of a hill. 
On the Sussex Downs this is always the north side. 

The long man of Wilmington. A giant figure, 240 
feet long, cut in the turf on the northern slope of 
Winddoor Hill. One tradition says that it is a work 
with which a shepherd lad amused his idle hours. 
Another says that it was made for some unstated 
purpose by the monks of the neighbouring Benedic- 

220 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

tine Priory of Wilmington. It has been suggested 
that it is a representation of an ancient British deity. 

Sea-forgotten walls. Since Plantagenet times the 
sea has receded a mile and more from the old ports 
of Rye and Winchelsea. Pevensey Castle, the walls 
of which were formerly lapped by the sea, is now 
nearly a mile from the nearest beach. 

Stanza 10. Shaws. Thickets or small groves on 
a steep hillside. 

Ghylls. Rocky clefts in the hillside forming the 
course of a stream. 

Sussex steers. Sussex has a breed of cattle of its 
own. They resemble the better known Devon cattle, 
but are larger, coarser, and of a deeper red colour. 

SONG OF THE WISE CHILDREN 

Stanza i . The darkened Fifties. The United King- 
dom lies between latitudes 50 and 6o° North. 

And the day is dead at his breaking forth. Compare 
this with the description of daybreak in the Bay of 
Bengal, where 'the dawn comes up like thunder' 
(Mandalay) . 

The Bear. The constellation that dominates the 
northern skies. 

Stanza 4. We have forfeited our birthright, i. e. 
by leaving the land of sunshine. 

Stanza 8. The wayside magic, the threshold spells. 
One may sometimes see by the side of the road in 
India an image that has been emblematically married 

221 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

to a well. Sometimes a saucer containing sand, grain, 
yellow cloth, and other things has been placed there 
by some one who is ill, in the hope that a passer-by 
by meddling with its contents will take the disease on 
himself. If the saucer contain wine or cooked food 
a ghost is to be propitiated. Sometimes one may see 
a heap of earth, to which each passer-by contributes a 
clod in honour of the god who protects wayfarers. 

Once a year Hindoo women mark their houses with 
lines of cow-dung and worship the serpent, the sym- 
bol of eternity, with milk and parched grain. Every 
morning in a Hindoo household the ceremony of the 
Salutation of the Threshold is performed. A pattern 
is drawn on the threshold in lines of powdered rice, 
decorated at intervals with flowers. In many houses, 
especially where there are young children or animals 
liable to the evil-eye, the wall beside the doorpost is 
marked with a representation of the sign of Ganesa, 
the Swastika, or mystic cross, which is supposed to 
represent the sun in its journey through the heavens. 
A Swastika beside an elephant's head is stamped on 
the covers of many of Rudyard Kipling's books. 

BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA 

An additional stanza to this poem appears as a 
heading to Chapter III. of Kim {see note, p. 357). 

Buddha is the name neither of a man nor a god. 
The word is generally translated 'enlightened,' and is 
a title applied to anyone who, ' by self-denying efforts, 

222 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

continued through many hundreds of different births, 
has acquired the ten cardinal virtues in such per- 
fection that he is able, when sin and ignorance have 
gained the upper hand throughout the world, to save 
the human race from impending ruin.' 

There have been over a million Buddhas in former 
worlds. In this world there have been four, and there 
is one yet to come. 

The title Buddha is specifically applied to Gau- 
tama, the son of a Hindoo rajah of the military caste, 
who renounced the world, became a prophet, and 
taught the essentials of the creed that is now called 
Buddhism, a creed based on Hinduism, but far nobler 
and more enlightened. He lived in the fifth or sixth 
century b. c. Gautama is believed to have had five 
hundred and ten previous existences. Brahmans de- 
clare him to have been the ninth incarnation of their 
god Vishnu. 

Kamakura, formerly one of the most populous 
and powerful cities of Japan, the seat of the Shogunate, 
is now a mouldering hamlet. It contains many 
Buddhist shrines, but there is in particular one giant 
figure of the Buddha that is a masterpiece of statuary. 
The following is from Lafcadio Hearne's Glimpses of 
Unfamiliar Japan, published in 1894: — 

'Here still dwell the ancient gods in the great si- 
lence of their decaying temples, without worshippers, 
without revenues, surrounded by desolations of rice- 
fields, where the chanting of frogs replaces the sea- 

223 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

like murmur of the city that was and is not . . . 
The nearer you approach the giant Buddha, the 
greater this charm becomes. You look up into the 
solemnly beautiful face, and you feel that the image 
typifies all that is tender and calm in the Soul of the 
East/ 

Stanza i. The Narrow way. Western theology rec- 
ognises two spiritual paths: 'broad is the way that 
leadeth to destruction ; narrow is the way which leadeth 
unto eternal life/ Eastern theology, both Buddhist 
and Brahman, recognises one path which the spirit 
must follow through many successive lives, and per- 
haps through many hells. In Buddhism the goal is 
Nirvana — literally the ' dying out ' in the heart of the 
three cardinal sins, sensuality, ill-will, and stupidity, 
which frees the soul from the necessity for rebirth. 

Stanza 2. The Way. The following definition of 
'The Way' is ascribed to Gautama Buddha himself: — 

'There is a path which opens the eyes and bestows 
understanding, which leads to peace, to insight, to the 
higher wisdom, to Nirvana. Verily, it is this Noble 
Eightfold Path: that is to say, Right Views, Right 
Aspirations, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right 
Mode of Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindedness, 
and Right Rapture/ 

The Law. The dogma set forth in the Four Noble 
Truths: (1) that existence in any form involves 
Suffering and Sorrow; (2) that the cause of suffering 
is Desire and Lust of Life; (3) that the cessation of 

224 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

suffering is effected by the complete conquest over 
and destruction of Desire and Lust of Life; (4) that 
the path leading to the Cessation of Suffering is the 
Noble Eightfold Path. 

Maya. The mother of Gautama. 

Ananda. A cousin of Gautama. He has been 
called the 'beloved disciple' of the Buddhist story. 
He was born at the same moment as Buddha, at which 
moment also the sacred Bo-tree (see 'Buddh-Gaya,' 
stanza 10, p. 228) sprang from the ground. 

Bodhisat. A being destined eventually to become 
a Buddha. Gautama was a Bodhisat until he at- 
tained enlightenment. The Grand Lama of Thibet 
is a Bodhisat who refuses to attain Buddhahood, in 
order that he may continue to be born again and 
again for the benefit of mankind. 

Stanza 4. Joss-sticks. The Japanese reverence 
Buddha by burning sticks of incense before his images. 
These sticks are popularly called by Europeans 'joss- 
sticks.' Joss is the pidgin-English word for a heathen 
god. It is a corruption of the Portuguese word deus, 
god. 

Stanza 6. Contemning neither creed nor priest. 
Buddhism enjoins Love, Sorrow for the Sorrows of 
others, Joy in the Joy of others, and equanimity as 
regards one's own joys and sorrows. 'Our minds 
should not waver. No evil speech will we utter. 
Tender and compassionate will we abide, loving in 
heart, void of malice within.' 

225 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 7. Every tale Ananda heard. This is a 
reference to the Jatakas, the five hundred and forty- 
seven tales of the successive lives lived by Gautama. 
Most of them deal with occasions in which Gautama 
was born as some form of animal. In Kim the Lama 
tells a jataka in which Gautama is an elephant. 
Planudes, who compiled the stories miscalled JEsop's 
Fables, is supposed to have obtained much of his 
material from such of the Jatakas as had reached 
Europe in the fourteenth century. The story of 
Sindbad the Sailor is based on the Jatakas. Boccacio 
and Chaucer unconsciously borrowed from them, and 
the ideas of the three caskets and the pound of flesh in 
the Merchant of Venice are to be found in them. 

Stanza 8. Htee. The golden top of a Buddhist 
temple in Burma. 

Shwe-Dagon. A Buddhist pagoda at Rangoon, the 
centre of Burmese religious life. It stands on a hill, 
and is in itself loftier than St. Paul's Cathedral. It 
is covered from base to summit with pure gold, which 
is renewed once in every generation. Ralph Fitch, 
the first Englishman to see this wonder (in 1586), 
wrote of it, 'It is the fairest place, as I suppose, that is 
in the world.' In From Sea to Sea it is described as 
* a golden mystery, a beautiful winking wonder/ 

Stanza 9. The thunder of Thibetan drums. The 
beating of drums forms part of the worship of the 
priests in Thibet, although anything in the way of 
ritual was expressly discountenanced by Gautama, 

226 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Om mane fiadme om is an invocation in Thibetan 
Sanskrit. It is the prayer that is written or printed 
on the Thibetan prayer-wheels; on some it is printed 
one hundred million times. It is the first prayer that 
a child learns and the last that a dying man utters. 
It is, in fact, the only prayer known to the average 
Thibetan. It is addressed to the Bodhisat Padma- 
pani, the patron saint of Thibet, and contains the 
essence of all happiness, prosperity, and knowledge, 
and the great means of deliverance. Each syllable 
has its own special power in safeguarding the utterer 
from rebirth. Om saves him from rebirth among 
gods, ma among Titans, ni from rebirth as a man, 
pad from rebirth as a beast, and me from rebirth in 
hell. The meaning seems to be lost, but 'Hail to the 
Jewel in the Lotus' or 'God the Jewel in the Lotus' 
have been suggested as translations. 

To an Oriental the incessant repetition of a formula 
is not the futile performance that it appears to the 
western mind. In 'The Miracle of Purun Bhagat' 
{The Second Jungle Book), Purun Bhagat in his last 
resting-place among the silence and the space of the 
hills, 'would repeat a Name softly to himself a hun- 
dred, hundred times, till, at each repetition, he seemed 
to move more and more out of his body, sweeping up 
to the doors of some tremendous discovery/ 

Stanza 10. Brahmans rule Benares still. Brah- 
mans are Hindoos of the highest caste; though they 
may follow various trades and professions, they are 

227 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

fundamentally and hereditarily priests. Benares is 
the great centre of that form of Hinduism which is 
devoted to the worship of Siva, and it is there that 
the lowest forms of Hinduism, grossest superstition 
and inexpressible obscenities, are most apparent 
to-day; forms of religion as opposed to the pure and 
enlightened teachings of Gautama as any creed could 
be. One of the four chief events in the life of Gau- 
tama Buddha occurred at Benares — his first expound- 
ing of his doctrines. As late as the seventh century 
a. d. the city contained thirty Buddhist monasteries. 
But Buddhism is now practically extinct not only in 
Benares, but, except where it survives in the form of 
Jainism, almost throughout India. It has become, how- 
ever, the religion of thirty-five per cent, of the world's 
inhabitants, and is the sole or principal religion of 
Japan, China, Korea, Thibet, Burma, and Ceylon. 

Buddh-Gaya, a few miles south of Gaya in Bengal, 
is one of the most holy places of Buddhism. Here 
grew the sacred Bo-tree under which Gautama sat in 
meditation for forty-nine days, during which time 
he did not bathe nor take any food yet did not ex- 
perience the least want. Powers of evil and good 
warred around him, and he was tempted in turn by a 
demon in the shape of a young girl, one in the shape 
of a young woman, and one in the shape of a middle- 
aged woman. At the end of his meditation he came 
to a perfect knowledge of the Law and thus became 
Buddha ('Enlightened'). 

228 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 

This poem was published in M'Clures' Magazine 
(New York) shortly after the signing of the Treaty 
of Paris (December 10, 1898), by which peace was 
made between the United States of America and 
Spain. 

After her war with Spain the United States found 
herself in a position such as had not arisen during the 
course of her history. She had made war with Spain 
with the object of freeing Cuba from the Spanish yoke 
and without any intention of annexing that island to 
herself. Her constitution was precise and made no 
provision for imperial responsibilities. Yet to have 
abandoned Cuba and the Philippines would have 
placed these islands in a worse position than before 
the war. Both on selfish and unselfish grounds it 
was imperative that, in spite of her Constitution, the 
United States should 'take up the White man's bur- 
den' of imperial responsibility and charge herself with 
the care of the semi-civilised islands that she had 
wrested from Spain. One splendid result of her as- 
sumption of this responsibility is that yellow-fever, 
which had been the curse of Cuba for centuries, has 
been eradicated throughout that island. 

Stanza 4. The ports ye shall not enter. By the 
Treaty of Paris the United States undertook to hand 
back Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico to their 
own inhabitants after the expiration of ten years. 

229 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 5. Why brought ye us from bondage, 
Our loved Egyptian night ? 
When the Israelites were hungry in the wilderness 
they murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, 
'Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord 
in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, 
and when we did eat bread to the full' (Exodus xvi. 
2 and 3). 

PHARAOH AND THE SERGEANT 

Stanza 1. In January, 1883, the year after armed 
British occupation of Egypt, Sir Evelyn Wood was 
given £200,000, and directed to spend it on raising a 
force of six thousand soldiers from the native peasan- 
try for the protection of Egypt. Though the Egyp- 
tian fellah is unwarlike by nature, he has, when 
trained and led by British officers, developed soldierly 
qualities of an exceptionally high character. 

Stanza 3. Coptics. Before the Mohammedan in- 
vasion of Egypt the inhabitants who were Christians 
spoke Coptic. Though their descendants have held 
to their religion, they long since abandoned Coptic 
speech and adopted the language of their Arab con- 
querors. 

Stanza 4. Cautions. To ensure that orders on 
parade shall be carried out smartly by all the soldiers 
in unison, the actual words of command are reduced 
to monosyllables. Before the word is given the 
sergeant will give warning by uttering the 'caution.' 

230 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Thus he may say, pausing between the two words, 
'Quick' — 'march/ The 'caution' in this case is the 
word 'Quick.' 'March' is the actual word of com- 
mand, for which the men will wait before moving. 
A sergeant wishing to call his men to attention will 
say 'Squad — 'shun.' 'Squad' is the caution and 
* 'shun' (the word 'attention' concentrated) the word 
of command. 

Combed old Pharaoh out. A slang expression 
equivalent to 'made him sit up.' 

Gordon. The British Government delayed five 
months after the siege of Khartum began before decid- 
ing to take steps to relieve General Gordon. The 
relieving force reached Khartum two days after the 
garrison had fallen and Gordon had been killed. 

Stanza 5. And he mended it again in a little more 
than ten. The first severe test to which the re-organ- 
ised Egyptian army was put was in the Dongola cam- 
paign of 1896, when it did magnificent work against 
the Sudanese dervishes. 

Stanza 6. 'Tzveen a cloud of dust and fire. Cf. 
Exodus xiii. 21 : 'And the Lord went before them by 
day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and 
by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light.' 

OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS 

On a most appropriate day, St. George's Day, in 
1897, the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, 
the Canadian House of Commons gave a preference 

231 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

to imports from the mother-country. Immediately 
after the passing of the Bill a member of the House 
struck up 'God Save the Queen/ The other mem- 
bers joined in singing the hymn, after which the 
House was adjourned. 

Stanza 2. Not for the Gentiles' clamour. The 
question was raised during the debate on the revision 
of the tariff as to whether Germany and Belgium 
would protest against Canada's giving a preference 
to Great Britain. The reply of Mr. Fielding, the 
Finance Minister, amounted to a statement that he 
neither knew nor cared whether they would or not. 

Stanza 4. A troubled year. The year 1896, in 
which Sir Wilfrid Laurier inaugurated his proposal of 
a preferential tariff in favour of the mother-country, 
was marked by friction between the United States 
and Great Britain over the Venezuela Boundary 
question. 

'ET DONA FERENTES' 

The title is a quotation from Virgil's Aeneid, ii. 49. 
The full line is 'Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et 
dona ferentes' (whatever it may be, I fear the Greeks 
even when they bring gifts), and is spoken by Laocoon 
with reference to the wooden horse which the Greeks 
left outside the walls of Troy. 

Stanza 1. The Four-mile radius is that part of 
London which lies within four miles of Charing Cross 
station. 

232 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 2. Pentecostal crew. On the day of the 
Pentecost (Acts ii. 4) the apostles 'began to speak 
with other tongues/ 

Stanza 3. St. Lawrence, while being burnt alive 
on a gridiron, joked with his executioners, saying, 'I 
am roasted enough on this side; turn me round and 
eat.' 

Stanza 6. Nous sommes allong a notre batteau, 
nous ne voulong pas un row. This is French (not of 
the purest Parisian variety!) for 'We are going to our 
boat, we don't want a row/ 

Stanza 10. Aas-vogels. Afrikander-Dutch for vul- 
tures. 

KITCHENER'S SCHOOL 

Stanza 1. Hubshee. A corruption of the Arabic 
Habashi. The word originally meant an Abyssinian, 
but is now applied in India to any African or to any 
one with woolly hair. It is also applied to a woolly- 
haired horse, generally esteemed unlucky. 

Carry your shoes in your hand. In British India 
a visitor to a temple, mosque, or friend's house always 
leaves his shoes at the door. Cf. Exodus iii. 5. The 
Lord commanded Moses, saying, 'Put off thy shoes 
from off thy feet.' 

Emirs. Commanders or governors of provinces. 
The Emirs of the Sudanese Provinces revolted from 
the authority of the Khedive of Egypt and gave their 
allegiance to the Mahdi in 1883. After the Mahdi's 

233 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

death they were commanded by the Khalifa until de- 
feated by British and Egyptian troops under Sir Her- 
bert (afterwards Lord) Kitchener in September, 1898. 

Stanza 2. The tomb ye knew. The tomb of Ma- 
hommed Ahmed ibn Seyyid Abdullah, who had 
claimed to be the Mahdi (lit. ' he who is guided aright'), 
and who had been recognised by his followers as 
divinely appointed to regenerate Islam. On Septem- 
ber 1, 1898, Kitchener's troops were within reach of 
Omdurman, and the Mahdi's tomb was shelled by 
howitzers at 2,300 yards range. The tomb was re- 
garded as a sacred shrine, and its destruction was 
intended to have, and had, a moral effect, as the Su- 
danese dervishes held that its safety was necessary 
to theirs. On the following day the dervishes, about 
35,000 in number, streamed out of Omdurman and 
advanced to the attack. Though they fought mag- 
nificently they were routed by noon, and soon after- 
wards the Anglo-Egyptian army entered the town. 

Stanza 4. Letter by letter, from Kaf to Kaf. A 
pun of the favourite Oriental kind is contained in the 
expression from Kaf to Kaf. The phrase means ' from 
world's end to world's end.' (Kaf is the name of a 
mythical girdle of mountains that surrounds the world 
and keeps the earth's carpet from being blown off by 
the winds.) Kaf is also the letter of the Arabic alpha- 
bet which corresponds to the English K, the initial 
letter of Kitchener and of Khartoum. 

Openly asking the English for money to buy you 

234 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Hakims and scribes. Hakims are teachers of medi- 
cine or philosophy. On November 30, 1898, Lord 
Kitchener made an appeal to the public to found and 
maintain with British money a college bearing the 
name of the Gordon Memorial College, 'to be a pledge 
that the memory of Gordon is still alive among us, 
and that his aspirations are at length to be realised/ 
The College was founded at Khartoum, and young 
men from all parts of the Sudan are now being edu- 
cated there. In the Wellcome Tropical Research 
Laboratory, which is attached to the Gordon Mem- 
orial College, dervishes who fought against us at 
Omdurman have actually been trained to use the mi- 
croscope and join in the war, waged for the benefit 
of mankind, against tropical disease. 

THE YOUNG QUEEN 

Stanza 1. Bright-eyed out of the battle. The Com- 
monwealth of Australia was inaugurated during the 
progress of the South African war, in which the Im- 
perial Forces received very material assistance from 
Australian troops. 

Stanza 2. The Hall of Our Thousand Years. 
Almost exactly one thousand years before New Year's 
Day, 1901, died Alfred, King of the English, who laid 
the first stone of the structure that was destined to 
become the British Empire. 

The Five Free Nations — England, Canada, Aus- 
tralia, New Zealand, South Africa. 

235 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 3. The Leeuwin. The cape of south- 
western Australia that catches the full force of the 
swell from the great Southern Ocean. The other side 
of Australia, the north-east, is protected for a thou- 
sand miles by a coral reef, the Great Barrier Reef. 

Stanza 5. The pearls of the Northland. Thursday 
Island, to the north of Cape York, is the centre of the 
Australian pearl-fishery. 

Gold of the West. Australia produces about one 
quarter of the world's supply of gold, and of this more 
than half comes from Western Australia. 

Her lands own opals. A large proportion of the 
world's supply of opals are found in Queensland and 
New South Wales. 

Levin. Lightning. 

Stanza 7. Child of the child I bore. Federated 
Australia as a whole was the result of the union of all 
Australia, which was planted and settled by England. 

RIMMON 

After Naaman, the Syrian, was healed of his leprosy 
he promised Elisha that he would henceforth 'offer 
neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but 
unto the Lord,' but asked pardon in advance for 
bowing in the house of Rimmon when he had to attend 
the king in his worship of the idol (2 Kings v. 17 and 

18). 

Stanza 6. Cf. 1 Kings xviii., in which Elisha 
mocks the priests of Baal and suggests that the reason 

236 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

their god does not hear them may be that he is talking 
or hunting, or asleep or on a journey. 

THE OLD ISSUE 

October 9, 1899, was the day on which the South 
African Republic presented its ultimatum to Great 
Britain. 

Stanza 1. Trumpets in the marshes — in the eyot 
at Runnymede. It was on an eyot or small island in 
the Thames, between Staines and Windsor, that King 
John very reluctantly signed the Great Charter, one 
of the provisions of which was ' to none will we sell or 
deny or delay right or justice.' The barons who thus 
brought him to his knees had their camp on Runny- 
mede, a marshy flat opposite the island. 

Stanza 2. Trumpets round the scaffold at the dawn- 
ing by Whitehall. Charles 1., another king who never 
could learn, reiterated his conviction a moment before 
his execution on the scaffold before the Banqueting 
House at Whitehall, that the people had no right to 
a share in the government. 'A sovereign and a 
subject are clean different things.' 

Stanza 3. He hath veiled the Crown and hid the 
Sceptre. Paul Kruger, though nominally President 
of a Republic, was an autocrat by instinct, and, so 
far as intrigue against either the British or against 
Thomas Burgers and Piet Joubert, his own fellow- 
countrymen, could make him so, an autocrat in actual 
fact. 'This is my country,' he said to a deputation 

237 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

of Uitlanders who petitioned that the English lan- 
guage should be legalised in the Transvaal. 'These 
are my laws. Those who do not like to obey my 
laws can leave my country/ 

Stanza 7. Grey-goose wing. Goose-feathers were 
used by the English archers for their arrows. 

Stanza 8. How our King is one with us, first 
among his peers. Monarchy in England has always 
been limited in theory, if not in practice. A Planta- 
genet king was not an absolute monarch, but the chief 
and leader of the peers of the realm (' peers' strictly 
means ' equals ') . In those days none but the nobility 
were of any importance so far as government was 
concerned. During the Wars of the Roses the barons 
broke each other's power so effectively that when 
peace was re-established the Tudor kings were able 
to make themselves practically absolute, and as 
they combined tact with their despotism few re- 
sented the change. When the Stuarts tried to rule 
despotically without tact, the English, this time the 
commoners, established for all time the principle 
that the king is the servant and not the master of his 
subjects. 

Stanza 19. He shall rule above the Law calling 
on the Lord. President Kruger professed, and quite 
possibly sincerely believed himself, to be the object 
of special Divine guidance. When he set aside the 
laws of the land, he persuaded himself that he had 
Divine sanction for so doing. 

238 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

BRIDGE-GUARD IN THE KARROO 

Stanza I, Oudtshoorn ranges. Mountains in the 
Little Karroo Desert in Cape Colony. 

Stanza 4. Picket. A body of men placed at a 
short distance from camp to protect points of 
importance or to detach sentries to posts of obser- 
vation. 

Stanza 5. Details. Small miscellaneous bodies 
of men detached from their corps. Men charged with 
the duty of guarding a bridge on the line of commu- 
nication, but far from the actual war area, undergo 
all the discomforts of active service added to the 
tedium of deadly monotony. If the unexpected hap- 
pens they may be called upon to fight at any time 
■ — otherwise they would not be there — but the chances 
of fighting are remote. They have therefore the very 
hard task of performing a duty from which every 
element of interest and every chance of distinction 
seem to be eliminated. 

Stanza 10. Ties. The wooden 'sleepers' that 
hold the railway lines in their places. 

Stanza 13. During the South African War some 
of those whose business led them to travel by train in 
the war areas, remembering the loneliness of those 
who guarded communications, carried with them 
bundles of newspapers for distribution along the line. 
Such newspapers, and the few occasional moments' 
chat with passengers on the trains, were the only 

239 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

means of contact with the outside world enjoyed by 
those who guarded the lines of communication. 

THE LESSON 

Stanza I. Knocked higher than Gilderoy s kite. 
There is no evidence that the original Gilderoy ever 
had a kite. He was a sturdy law-breaker, hanged 
long ago at Edinburgh — on higher gallows than those 
of other criminals, as a sign that his crimes were 
greater. He was hanged so high that he looked like a 
kite in the air. 

'Of Gilderoy sae fraid they were 
They bound him mickle strong, 
Till Edenburrow they led him thair 
And on a gallows hong; 
They hong him high above the rest.' 

To be hanged higher than Gilderoy' s kite has come 
to mean to be punished with exceptional severity. 

Stanza 2. From Lamberts to Delagoa Bay, and 
from Pietersburg to Sutherland. These places mark 
respectively the westernmost, easternmost, northern- 
most, and southernmost limits of the South African 
War area. 

Stanza 4. That horses are quicker than men afoot. 
One of the first and most important mistakes made on 
the British side was the pitting of foot-soldiers against 
riflemen who were without exception mounted; and 
one of the most valuable lessons that the British 

240 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

learned from the war was the value of mounted infan- 
try. 

THE FILES 

One of the most wearisome of a journalist's duties 
is to grub for information as to some past and half- 
forgotten event through the masses of newspapers 
that accumulate month by month and year by year 
in a newspaper office. If he is uncertain of the date 
of the occurrence to which he wishes to refer, he must 
hunt through one dusty file after another, backwards 
and forwards, till he finds what he seeks. The te- 
dium of the task is occasionally relieved by the interest 
of lighting upon records of occurrences long since 
forgotten, that were obviously considered of tremen- 
dous importance when they took place. 

Line 12. Faenza. An Italian town that has had 
many masters. The reference is to Browning's 
'Soul's Tragedy,' the scene of which is laid in Faenza. 
Ogniben, the Papal Legate, says, ' I have known four 
and twenty leaders of revolts' (in Faenza). There is 
a pun on the word 'leader,' which in journalistic lan- 
guage means the principal article in each issue of a 
paper. 

Lines 18 and 19. Kensall Green and Pere-la-Chaise 
are two huge cemeteries, the former in London, and 
the latter in Paris. 

Lines 32-34. Long primer, brevier, and minion are 
the names of three different sizes of type used in print- 

24.1 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

ing a newspaper. A prominent man who outlives his 
importance in the public eye will have his actions 
chronicled at first in long primer, the type used for 
the most important pages of the newspaper; later they 
will be noticed on one of the less important pages for 
which brevier, a somewhat smaller type, is used. At 
last he will be honoured only by a short 'para,' i. e. 
paragraph, printed solid — that is, the lines close 
together instead of 'leaded' or spaced out as in 
the more important parts of the paper — in minion, 
the smallest type in general use and at the bottom 
of a column. 

Line 36. Leaded. The opposite of solid (see pre- 
ceding note). 

Line 37. Triple-headed. Recorded in a column 
prefaced by three headlines. Even the most sensa- 
tional English newspapers seldom have more than this 
number of headlines to a column, but three would be 
quite a moderate number for many American news- 
papers. 

Line 43. Bomba. The nickname given to Ferdi- 
nand 11., King of the Two Sicilies, after he authorised 
the bombardment of the chief cities of Sicily in 
1849. 

Line 44. Saffi. An Italian patriot, and a col- 
league of Mazzini in the triumvirate to which the 
government of Rome was entrusted during a few 
weeks of 1849. 

Line 67. Samuel Smiles. The author of Self- 

242 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Help — his most popular work — and books entitled 
Character, Thrift, and Duty, as well as biographies 
of various successful men, the purpose of each of 
which was to teach the reader how to get on in the 
world. 

Lines 73 and 74. These two lines are taken bodily 
from the works of Dr. Thomas Holley Chivers of 
Georgia, author of The Lost Pleiad. Circa 1840. 

Conchimarian horns. Conches, trumpets made of 
sea-shells. 

Reboantic. Bellowing. 

Norns. In northern mythology divine prophetesses 
who foretold the destiny of new-born children. 

Line 79. Brocken-spectres. Shadows of men enor- 
mously magnified cast on banks of clouds. The 
phenomenon, first noticed on the Brocken, may be 
seen under certain atmospheric conditions in high 
mountain regions when the sun is low. 

Lines 84 and 85. 'Quod ubique, 

Quod ab omnibus means semper!' 
These words are part of what is called the motto of 
St. Vincent, an ecclesiastical writer of the fifth cen- 
tury, who defines the Catholic faith as 'quod ubique, 
quod semper, quod ab omnibus, creditum est* (that 
which everywhere, that which always, and that which 
by all men must be believed). The lesson taught by 
the files is that that which is believed everywhere 
{ubique) and by all {ab omnibus) is not necessarily 
believed for all time {semper). 

243 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

THE REFORMERS 

This poem was published in the Times on October 
1 2th, 1 90 1. Two days earlier Sir Redvers Buller, at 
a public luncheon, had made a spirited reply to the 
Press criticisms on his conduct of the earlier part of 
the war in South Africa. 

DIRGE OF DEAD SISTERS 

Stanza 2. Let us now remember many Honourable 
Women. Cf. Ecclesiasticus xliv. 1, 3: 'Let us now 
praise famous men . . . such as did bear rule in 
their kingdoms.' 

Stanza 7. Blanket-hidden bodies, flagless. At the 
height of the typhoid epidemic in Bloemfontein it 
was not always possible to secure one or other of the 
regimental funeral flags to put over the corpse, which 
was therefore carried to its grave wrapped in a blanket 
only. 

Stanza 9. Them that died at Uitvlugt when the 
plague was on the city. Cape Town was visited by 
epidemic plague in 1901-2. The hospital and isola- 
tion camps were at Uitvlugt, on the Cape Flats, some 
five or six miles out of the city. Two of the nurses on 
plague duty contracted the disease and died there. 

Her that fell at Simon s Town in service on our joes. 
This is a tribute to the memory of Mary Kingsley, 
niece of Charles and Henry Kingsley, and herself dis- 
tinguished as an intrepid explorer, a scientist of parts, 

244 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

an acute observer, and a writer of peculiar charm. 
At the age of thirty-two she made her second journey- 
to West Africa to collect scientific data on fresh-water 
fishes, as well as information with regard to native 
law and customs. During this tour she explored the 
country of the cannibal Fans, being the first Euro- 
pean to enter their country, suffering much hardship, 
and running considerable risk of losing her life. Her 
books on West Africa are remarkable in that though 
they deal ably and authoritatively with scientific sub- 
jects, the information they contain is presented in 
so light and humorous a style that the dullest reader 
could not fail to enjoy them. She was preparing for 
a third journey to West Africa when the South African 
War broke out, and she went to the Cape as a hospi- 
tal nurse. While tending Boer prisoners at Simon's 
Town she died of enteric fever (according to one 
account — other accounts say that she died of black- 
water fever, a little understood disease, the seeds of 
which may have entered her system when she was 
in West Africa). Throughout her life she set a high 
example of sound sense, chivalry, and courage. Her 
funeral was in accordance with her own wishes. Her 
body was carried on a gun-carriage to a torpedo-boat, 
which took it out to sea and committed it to the deep. 

THE ISLANDERS 

Line i. No doubt but ye are the People. In these 
words Job sarcastically answered his critics. 'No 

245 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die 
with you' (Job xii. 2). 

Line 12. Ye grudged . . . your fields for their 
camping-place. A serious difficulty which hampers 
the training of troops in England arises from the 
limitations of the space over which troops may 
manoeuvre. Private landowners, especially those 
who preserve game, will not allow their land to be 
used for the purpose. Troops on manoeuvres are 
therefore obliged to keep very largely to roads. All 
land over which they are not allowed to pass is, for 
the purposes of the manoeuvre, supposed to be swamp 
land or some other impassable obstacle. Under these 
conditions it is impossible to handle troops as they 
would be handled in actual warfare, and the efficiency 
of both men and officers is impaired in consequence. 
There are districts, such as Salisbury Plain, where 
troops can manoeuvre unrestricted, but as officers 
get to know these districts by heart, the educational 
value of training there is not what it would otherwise 
be. 

Line 21. Sons of the sheltered city. (See note on 
'Two Kopjes/ stanza 3, p. 260.) 

Line 28. And ye sent them comfits and pictures. 
The late Queen Victoria sent in December, 1899, a 
Christmas present consisting of a box of chocolate 
to every British soldier in the field. The gift 
was most highly appreciated, partly on sentimental 
grounds, partly because of the excellent sense shown 

246 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

in choosing the gift. Men living on such food as is 
issued under active service conditions have a craving, 
caused by abstention from fresh vegetables, for sweet 
food. Chocolate not only satisfies this craving but 
is a concentrated food of high value. Since it suited 
the taste of all, chocolate was more suitable as a gift 
than tobacco or anything else that could have been 
sent. The Queen's example set a fashion, and for a 
while the troops received a bewildering succession 
of presents — pipes, cigarettes, Balaklava caps, etc. 
In some cases it seemed obvious that those who paid 
for these presents exercised no supervision over the 
contractors who supplied them, for some of the goods 
presented to the soldiers were so poor in quality as to 
be practically useless, and certainly not worth car- 
riage from England to the front. 

Line 30. The men who could shoot and ride. Very 
soon after the war had begun, the authorities recog- 
nised the need of the assistance of frontiersmen, such 
as the Boers themselves. The offers of the different 
colonies to send troops were therefore accepted, and 
the towns of Cape Colony and Natal were placarded 
with advertisements inviting those who could 'shoot 
and ride' to join one or other of the irregular corps 
(The Imperial Light Horse, Thornycroft's Mounted 
Infantry, and many others) that were raised to meet 
the emergency. 

Line 59. Ye say, 'It will minish our trade.* 
Nevertheless the following theories prevalent in Ger- 

247 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

many with regard to conscription bear on the British 
National Service problem: Conscription increases the 
earning power of the community because the security 
ensured by a strong army attracts capital: it increases 
the earning power of the individual, because men who 
have undergone training are stronger in body and 
more intelligent than untrained men of the same class: 
it has been estimated that the life of a trained man is 
on the average five years longer than that of one who 
has not been trained. 

Line 77. Teraphs — idols. Sept — a subdivision of 
a tribe. 

THE PEACE OF DIVES 

The name Dives does not occur in the English 
Bible, but is taken from the Vulgate translation of the 
Gospels, where the word is used, not as a proper name, 
but for the * certain rich man' (quidam dives) who, 
being in hell, pleaded that Lazarus might be allowed 
to bring him water. Luke xvi. 19-31. The theme 
of this poem — that those who control the world's 
money markets 'decide between themselves how, and 
when, and for how long king should draw sword 
against king, and people rise up against people' — is 
also the theme of 'The Treasure and the Law' (Puck 
of Pook's Hill). 

Stanza 3. Goshen. That part of Egypt which 
was inhabited by the Israelites when they lived in 
Egypt. 

248 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Gadire. The country of the Gadarenes, near the 
Sea of Galilee. 

Stanza 7. Habergeon. A coat of mail. 

Stanza 16. Ancient Akkad. One of the cities of 
Nimrod (Genesis x. 10), and the principal city of 
Sargon 1., King of Babylon (3800 b. c), who carried 
his conquests from the Euphrates to the shore of the 
Mediterranean. 

Islands of the Seas. Cf. Isaiah xi. 11: 'From As- 
syria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from 
Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from 
Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.' 

Stanza 17. Ashdod. A city of the Philistines 
(1 Samuel v. 1), situated on the military route between 
Syria and Egypt. It was captured by the Assyrians 
in 711 b. c. (Isaiah xx. 1) under a later Sargon, who 
assumed the name of his famous predecessor on seiz- 
ing the throne of Babylon. 

Stanza 18. Is not Calno like Carchemish? Cf. 
Isaiah x. 7, 8, 9: 'It is in his heart to destroy and cut 
off nations not a few. For he saith, Are not my princes 
altogether kings? Is not Calno as Carchemish ?' 
Calno is supposed to be Calneh (Genesis x. 10 and 
Amos vi. 2), one of Nimrod's cities on the east bank 
of the Tigris, a place of considerable commercial im- 
portance. Carchemish was a town on the Euphrates. 
It was the Hittite capital in the Bronze Age, but was 
lost to the Hittite Empire before the periods at which 
it was mentioned in the Bible. Necho, King of 

249 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Egypt, took it from the Assyrians (2 Chron. xxxv. 20), 
and Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, took it from 
Egypt (Jeremiah xlvi. 2). 

Stanza 19. Hast thou seen the pride of Moab? 
Cf. Jeremiah xlviii 29 and Isaiah xvi. 6. 

Gaza was the chief stronghold of the Philistines. 
Askalon and Gath were respectively the westernmost 
and easternmost towns of Philistia. 

THE SETTLER 

Stanza 3. Here will we join against our foes. In 
no country is economic organisation, such as irriga- 
tion and the provision on a large scale of the means of 
combating the diseases that attack crops and herds, 
more necessary than in South Africa. Under the Boer 
rule little was done in this direction. Irrigation on a 
small scale was practised by some of the Boer farmers, 
but South Africa needs irrigation on a larger scale than 
can be undertaken by private individuals. The Boer 
governments did little to promote irrigation, and were 
backward also in taking measures to check diseases 
among cattle and sheep and to kill off the swarms of 
locusts that periodically ravage the country, many 
Boers, members of the Legislature, considering that 
to do so would be an unrighteous attempt to interfere 
with Providence. One of the results of the South 
African War was that the establishment of a progres- 
sive government made possible economic organisation 
on a large scale. 

250 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

CHANT PAGAN 

Chant pagan. The original meaning of the Latin 
paganus was a 'villager' or 'rustic/ but it came to 
mean a light armed irregular soldier, enrolled for 
temporary service, as opposed to miles, a fully en- 
rolled soldier. 

Stanza 2. Kopje on kop. Kop is Afrikander- 
Dutch for a mountain, and kopje for a hill. 

'Elios (see note, 'A Code of Morals/ stanza 1, p. 9). 

Stanza 3. Maollisberg. Magaliesberg Mountains, 
west of Pretoria. General De la Rey used the range 
as a hiding-place from which to make sudden attacks 
on the British. 

Stanza 4. Barberton. A town in the eastern 
Transvaal enclosed by precipitous mountains. When 
General French took it he crossed these mountains by 
means of a goat track so steep that he had to put six- 
teen horses instead of six to each field-gun. He sur- 
prised the Boers by arriving at Barberton two days 
before they expected him. 

Dimond 'III. Diamond Hill was an indecisive 
battle lasting two days (June nth and 12th, 1900), in 
which a large number of troops on both sides were 
engaged. Its effect was to save Pretoria from the 
danger of an attack from General Botha. The total 
forces engaged numbered twenty thousand men. 

Pieters. The capture of Pieter's Hill (27th Febru- 
ary 1900) was the last of the series of engagements 

251 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

on the Tugela River by means of which Ladysmith 
was relieved. 

Springs. A village east of Johannesburg, where 
General Dartnell had an engagement with the Boers 
on the first day of General French's organised 
'drive.' 

Belfast. An action fought on 26th and 27th Au- 
gust, 1900, in which Lord Roberts defeated General 
Botha, whose troops dispersed in the bushveld to the 
north of the Middleburg railway. 

Dundee. Here the first action of the Boer War in 
Natal was fought, on 20th October, 1899. The Boer 
army surprised a small British force and compelled it 
to retreat towards Ladysmith. 

Vereeniging. Here the Articles of Peace were 
signed on 31st May, 1902. 

Five bloomin bars on my chest. The speaker would 
have both the King's and the Queen's medals for the 
Boer War. With the latter medal he would have 
the following clasps: Talana, for the action at Dundee; 
Tugela Heights, for the action at Pieter's Hill; Relief 
of Ladysmith, for the general series of actions of which 
Pieter's Hill was one ; Diamond Hill, and Belfast. 

' Ands up. A captured man holds up his hands in 
token of surrender. 

That state of life to which it shall please God to call 
me. A quotation from the Church of England 
catechism. 

Stanza 5. The place where the Lightnins are made, 

252 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Sudden and very violent thunderstorms are a feature 
of the South African climate. 

Brand-water Basin. A horseshoe shaped valley in 
the Drakensberg Mountains. Here over four thou- 
sand Boers were surrounded and captured by General 
Sir A. Hunter, from whom, however, Generals de Wet 
and Steyn cleverly escaped. 

Stanza 6. Trek. An Afrikander-Dutch word 
meaning 'draw.' Hence the word is the starting 
signal given to his oxen by a Boer waggon-driver. To 
'trek' thus comes to mean in particular to travel by 
waggons, and in general to travel by any method. 

Where there's neither a road nor a tree. A descrip- 
tion which fits a great part of South Africa. 

M. I. 

Stanza i. A fence post under my arm. As there 
is very little or no timber in many districts of South 
Africa, those who fought in the Boer War were often 
hard put to it to find fuel with which to cook their 
food. A soldier who when out on patrol came across 
a fence post would therefore regard it as a valuable 
find, and he would carry it away even though he were 
several miles from his camp or next halting-place. 

A sore-backed Argentine. Many of the horses im- 
ported for the South African War came from the 
Argentine Republic. 

Stanza 2. Chronic ikonas. A mixture of Cockney 
and Afrikander slang. The word ' chronic ' among 

253 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Cockneys has many uses. A soldier may describe the 
weather, or his commanding officer, or his food as 
' bloody chronic,' and in such cases the interpretation 
is left to the choice of the hearer. In this case the 
word is used to give emphasis to the word that follows. 
'Ikona' (pronounced aikorner) is an Afrikander word 
which means anything from simple 'no' to 'no you 
don't, my boy.' The language is 'Kitchen-Kafir,' a 
manufactured dialect which enables Englishmen and 
South African Kafirs to meet each other half-way, 
each party thinking that it is speaking the other's 
language. The word is in general use in South Africa, 
even between English-speaking people. An M. I. 
trooper who strolled into a neighbour's horse-lines 
on the lookout for a remount (see stanza 6) would 
probably be greeted by a shout of 'ikona' from any 
one who saw him and suspected his motives. As the 
M. I. learned 'to steal for themselves' as efficiently 
as marines (see 'Soldier and Sailor too,' The Seven 
Seas), the word would often be shouted at them. 
Hence the nickname. 

Stanza 3. Veldt-sores. A kind of sore that in 
various parts of Africa, from the Cape to the Soudan, 
attacks men whose blood has been made thin by lack 
of proper food. The sore is liable to break out wher- 
ever the skin is broken. In a mounted man it occurs 
most frequently on the bridle hand, as a horse, worried 
by flies, constantly jerks the rein forward and knocks 
its rider's left hand against the pommel of the saddle. 

254 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

The things I've used my bay'nit for. The bayonet 
is a most useful tool. It may be used for chopping 
wood, digging drains to carry off rain-water from the 
ground around a tent, opening tins of meat or sardines, 
or cutting up a sheep. It may be used to take the place 
of a tent-peg, and it makes an admirable candle-stick. 

From the Vaal to the Orange, etc. The Vaal River 
separates the Transvaal from the Orange Free State. 
The Orange River forms the southern boundary of the 
latter State, and the Pongola is in the east of the 
former State. The Mounted Infantryman of this 
poem is quite under a false impression in believing 
that his duties ever took him anywhere near the 
Zambesi River, which lies far to the north of the 
Boer War area. 

Stanza 4. Push. Gang. 

Stanza 5 . Our Adjutant 's ' late of Somebody 's 'Orse, ' 
an a Melbourne auctioneer. Troops became very 
mixed during the latter part of the South African War. 
An officer who returned from hospital or from some 
special duty, to find that his regiment was scattered 
in detachments over a large area, that no one could 
tell him the precise whereabouts of any one detach- 
ment, and that there was no one in particular for him 
to report himself to, often attached himself to the 
first available column that seemed in need of his 
services. In the story 'A Sahib's War' {Traffics and 
Discoveries), an officer in the Indian army, who had 
been attached to a remount depot in Cape Colony, is 

255 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

sent up to the front, and forgetting to return is 'stolen' 
by an Australian irregular corps. 

Stanza 6. Beggin the loan of an 'ead-stall an 9 
makiri a mount to the same. A dismounted man in a 
mounted corps is not only useless but a nuisance. 
Until he can get another horse to replace the one he 
has lost through illness or otherwise, he has to march 
on foot with the waggons of his corps, and misses any- 
thing that may be going.. Naturally, whenever he 
falls in with another mounted corps he endeavours to 
take steps to render himself a useful soldier again. 
The Mounted Infantryman would deny that it was 
stealing to take a horse from the horse-lines of another 
corps. If asked whence he had got a horse found in 
his possession he would say that he had 'made' it — 
a very common euphemism among those who are not 
punctilious as to methods of acquiring property. 

Footsack. Afrikander slang for 'Go away/ 

Stanza 8. Cow guns. Heavy guns drawn by 
teams of bullocks. 

Convoys. Trains of waggons loaded with supplies 
for the front and guarded by men both on foot and on 
horseback. 

Mister de Wet. A Boer general who displayed an 
extraordinary genius for guerilla warfare. On many 
occasions the British troops surrounded him, closed 
round him, and found at the last that he had somehow 
contrived to escape. He remained at large until the 
conclusion of the war. 

256 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 12. Mausered. The Boer forces were 
armed with the Mauser rifle; the British with the Lee- 
Metford. 

Five-bob colonials. Five shillings a day was the 
pay of a trooper or private in the various colonial 
corps that were raised for the South African War. 

COLUMNS 

Stanza 1. Trekkin. (See note, 'Chant Pagan/ 
stanza 6, p. 253.) 

Detail supply. A store established at the war end 
of the line of communications to which mobile col- 
umns resort when necessary for the replenishing of 
their stores. 

A section. A section of an artillery battery con- 
sisting of two guns and four ammunition waggons. 

A pompom. A Maxim automatic quick-firing 
gun, firing a 1 lb. shell, used for the first time by 
the Boers in the South African War, and sub- 
sequently adopted by the British. Its name — at 
first merely a nickname, but afterwards seriously 
adopted — arose from the noise of its report: pom- 
pompompompom, etc. 

Stanza 3. Where do we lay? Troops have to 
make their beds on ground assigned to them. It may 
be on ploughed land, which is soft and dirty, especially 
in rainy weather. 

Stanza 4. The tin street. In South Africa the 
roofs of almost all houses, and even the walls of 

257 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

many, are made of sheets of galvanised iron, com- 
monly known as 'tin.' 

Stanza 5. The outspan. In every South African 
village an area of land is reserved on which visitors to 
the village may 'outspan' (i. e. unyoke) their oxen. 
The owner of the waggon usually sleeps in it during 
his stay in the village instead of putting up at an hotel. 

Stanza 8. 'Untin for shade as the long hours pass. 
The mobile columns of the later South African War 
had to dispense with such luxuries as tents. When 
one was halted during the middle of the day the men 
used to seek relief from the burning sun by making 
tents with rifles for poles, blankets for canvas, and 
bayonets and jack-knives for tent-pegs. It was 
always hard to decide whether the stuffiness of the 
improvised tent was more or less bearable than the 
full glare and heat of the breezier open. 

Stanza 9. Dos sin . Sleeping. 

Beatin a shirt. Among the hardships of the war 
was the unavoidable prevalence of vermin in the cloth- 
ing of men of every rank. Whenever opportunity 
offered, men turned their shirts inside out and en- 
deavoured to get rid of the lice and their eggs that 
infested the seams. 

Stanza 12. 'Orse-guard. The men who during 
the halt have been herding the grazing horses. 

Stanza 13. Alpha Centauri. A star of the first 
magnitude in the southern hemisphere. It is the 
nearest star to the earth. 

258 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Somethin Orion. The constellation Orion consists 
of three stars of the first magnitude, four of the second, 
and many of inferior magnitude. They are distin- 
guished by letters of the Greek alphabet : alpha On- 
onis, beta Orionis, etc. 

Stanza 21. Stoep. Veranda of a house. 

Kraal. The word is applied in South Africa both 
to an enclosure for sheep, cattle, etc., and also to a 
group of native huts. It is often supposed to be a 
native word, but as a matter of fact comes from the 
Portuguese corral. 

THE PARTING OF THE COLUMNS 

Stanza 2. Doubled out. Came out * at the double,' 
a military expression for 'at the run.' 

Stanza 4. Bloeming-typhoidtein. A portmanteau 
word of which the ingredients are 'Blooming/ 'Ty- 
phoid,' and ' Bloemfontein/ where the British forces 
suffered severely from typhoid fever. Some Cock- 
neys have a genius for the construction of such port- 
manteau words. A word, particularly the universal 
adjective, is often sandwiched between the beginning 
and the end of another word to give it emphasis, 
e. g. 'absobloodylutely.' 

Stanza 6. Mouse and caribou (reindeer) are Cana- 
dian. The parrot that peeks lambs to death is 
the Kea parrot of New Zealand. Ranch is a Cana- 
dian word for a stock farm; run is its Australian 
equivalent. The towns mentioned are in Eastern 

259 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

and Western Canada, New Zealand, and New 
South Wales. 

Trek. (See note, * Chant Pagan,' stanza 6, p. 253.) 

Stanza 8. Dorps — towns. Dawson is the capital 
of the Yukon territory in Canada. Galle is a port in 
Ceylon from which many tea-planters went to serve 
in South Africa. Port Darwin is in the Northern 
Territory of Australia. Timaru is a little seaport 
town in New Zealand. 

Stanza 9. Drift. Ford of a river. 

Kraal. (See note, 'Columns/ stanza 21, p. 259.) 

TWO KOPJES 

Stanza 1. Kopjes. Hills. 

Stanza 3. Only baboons — at the bottom, 
Only some buck on the move. 
Baboons do not come down from the kopjes to the 
flats below except at early morning and at late eve- 
ning unless frightened by some one moving among 
their usual haunts. Nor do buck move during the 
heat of the day unless disturbed. Baboons at the 
bottom of a hill and buck on the move at mid-day 
are therefore signs that mean a lot to a scout. 

Only a Kensington draper. London civilians were 
represented in the South African War by the C. I. V.'s 
— the City Imperial Volunteers. As they had had 
very little military training and no previous war ex- 
perience, and being town-bred men had no bushcraft 
whatever, they had practically no knowledge of the 

260 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

art of scouting. They therefore made many mistakes, 
anecdotes of which afforded much amusement for 
those who stayed comfortably at home. An unkind 
story which went the round of the newspapers may 
be quoted as an example. The commander of a 
Boer column captured a member of the C. I. V. whom 
he had captured several times before. He communi- 
cated with the officer commanding the column to 
which his prisoner belonged, offering to exchange him 
for a bale of forage. This offer was refused on the 
ground that the terms demanded were exorbitant! 

Knock-out. A defeat. In boxing the term is used 
for a blow that renders the man who receives it unable 
to continue the fight. 

Stanza 4. Simmering. Appearing to quiver ow- 
ing to the motion of the heated air. 

The kopje beloved by the guide. Many of the guides 
locally picked Up by the British columns often en- 
deavoured to lead them into traps. 

Stanza 5. A bolted commando. The Boer forces 
were divided into groups named commandos. The 
art of drawing an enemy on by a feigned retreat was 
brought to perfection by the Boers in their wars with 
the Kaffirs. 

By sections retire. If a force were to retire all 
together the result might be disastrous. Panic might 
spread and in any case the enemy, having no one to 
face them, could afford to discard all precautions, 
leave their cover and stand up to fire on the retreating 

261 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

body. An orderly retreat should therefore be con- 
ducted 'by sections': a portion only of the company 
retires for a short distance (the others remaining to 
cover its retreat), and then takes cover and opens fire 
on the enemy in order to cover the retreat of the other 
sections. The sections thus take it in turns to retreat 
or stand their ground until all have withdrawn. 

Stanza 7. Foorloopers. A voorlooper is a man or 
boy who leads the leading pair of oxen in a waggon- 
team. 

Stanza 8. The Staff. A set of officers to whom 
general (i. e. non-regimental) duties are entrusted. 
In the field these include the planning of operations, 
the collection of information, etc. 

BOOTS 

The first four words in each line of this poem should 
be read slowly, at the rate of two words to a second. 
This will give the time at which a foot soldier nor- 
mally marches. 

There's no discharge in the war. Cf. Ecclesiastes 
viii. 8: 'There is no man that hath power over the 
spirit to retain the spirit ; neither hath he power in the 
day of death: and there is no discharge in that war.' 

THE MARRIED MAN 

After service with the army private soldiers are 
transferred to the Reserve, that is to say they are free 
to follow any civilian occupation they choose, but 

262 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

must return to their regiment when called upon for 
active service. The great majority of the rank and 
file have to wait until they are in the Reserve before 
they can marry. During the South African War all 
the reservists were called out. 

LICHTENBERG 

Lichtenberg is a pretty little village in the Western 
Transvaal, built round a market square. Little 
streams flow down the streets, and until General De 
la Rey's attack on the place on March 2nd, 1901, a 
profusion of trees shaded the houses. These were cut 
down in order to make the place more easy to defend. 

Some time after the war a group of men in a New 
Zealand club were discussing Rudyard Kipling's ac- 
curacy. One man referred to this poem, and declared 
positively that there was no wattle in Lichtenberg. 
An argument followed, and the point was referred to 
a man present, an Australian, who had been to Lich- 
tenberg. The Australian declared the first speaker 
to be wrong. He said that on a rainy day in Lichten- 
berg he had smelt wattle though he could not at first 
see any. Later, when opportunity offered, he had 
searched for it and found one small wattle-bush in 
full flower. 

The wattle of Australia, the doorn-boom of South 
Africa, the babul of India, and the acacia (which by 
masonic ritual is thrown into a Brother's grave) are all 
of the Mimosa family. 

263 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 2. Sold-out-shops. The shops in most 
small towns in the war area sooner or later became 
empty, as it was impossible to get fresh stocks of goods 
up from the coast owing to the railways being fully 
occupied with the carriage of war materials. 

STELLENBOSH 

Stellenbosh is a town near Cape Town. During 
the early part of the South African War it was used 
as a remount camp, as horses and mules thrive there. 
Officers who attracted the unfavourable notice of the 
Commander-in-Chief were sent there to perform the 
safe and uninteresting duties associated with a base 
camp. In consequence the expression 'to be stellen- 
boshed ' came into use, and was applied to any officer 
who was relieved of responsible duty at the front and 
given a less onerous task beyond the war area. 

Stanza i. Told 'im off. Reprimanded him. 

The Staff. (See note on 'Two Kopjes,' p. 262.) 

Stanza 2. The drift. Ford. 

The last survivin bandolier an boot. During the 
last stage of the South African War the Boers, having 
little enough food for their own use, did not care to 
embarrass themselves with prisoners. To supply 
their own deficiencies, however, before releasing their 
prisoners they took away their arms, ammunition, 
and clothes, sometimes giving them in return a hand- 
ful of tobacco, to show that there was no personal ill- 
feeling. 

264 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

Stanza 3. Stoep. Veranda. 

The Boer commandos in the later part of the war, 
knowing the country intimately and not being tied to 
supply-bases, were exceedingly mobile, and again and 
again slipped through the lines of columns that were 
closing upon them. 

Stanza 4. 'Elios. Heliographs, signalling instru- 
ments that catch and flash sunlight (see note 'A Code 
of Morals/ stanza 1, p. 9). 

Pompom. A quick-firing automatic gun, or in this 
case the projectiles discharged from it (see note, 
'Columns,' stanza 1, p. 257). 

Krantzes. Steep hillsides. 

K. C. B. The order of a Knight Commander of the 
Bath. The honour is given as a reward for military 
and (more seldom) civil service. 

Stanza 5. D. S. O.s. Distinguished Service Or- 
ders given in recognition of military merit. Some 
critics, who considered that these orders were not 
distributed with proper impartiality, suggested that 
they were awarded to Duke's Sons Only. 

HALF-BALLAD OF WATERVAL 

Waterval is a village fifteen miles north of Pretoria. 
There the Boers imprisoned a large number of the 
soldiers whom they captured during the earlier part 
of the South African War. The prisoners were placed 
in compounds surrounded by tall fences of barbed 
wire, strongly guarded, and lit at night by electricity. 

265 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

There were over four thousand British prisoners there 
when Lord Roberts entered Pretoria on June 5th, 
1900. The Boers had intended to carry them farther 
east, but were so hurried by Lord Roberts's rapid 
movements that they were only able to take one 
thousand. On the morning of the 5th June a number 
of the British prisoners overcame their guards and 
escaped. The Boers shelled them as they ran and 
shelled a train sent to pick them up, but only one 
casualty occurred. 

Boer prisoners captured by the British were sent to 
Ceylon or to St. Helena. 

PIET 

Stanza 1. All that foreign lot. At the outbreak 
of the South African War a number of men of Euro- 
pean or American nationality offered their services to 
the Boers. Of these from three to four hundred were 
German, four hundred were Dutch, two hundred were 
Irish — mostly Irish-American — three hundred were 
French, and one hundred Scandinavian. There were 
also some American, Swiss, Italian, and Russian. 
In all, the Boers' foreign allies numbered about two 
thousand five hundred. The Boer attitude towards 
them was not very cordial. Kruger, when welcoming 
a party of German volunteers, said, 'Thank you for 
coming. Don't imagine that we had need of you. 
But as you wish to fight for us you are welcome/ 
The foreign allies received no pay, but expected a 

266 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

reward after the war was over. Some had offered 
themselves out of sympathy with the Boer cause; 
others joined from love of adventure, desire for mili- 
tary experience, or greed for plunder. An American 
who joined the Boers in order to test a gun that he had 
invented is the chief character in 'The Captive/ 
{Traffics and Discoveries). 

'Is coat-tails lyin level. The Boers did not adopt 
any uniform but wore their usual civilian dress — in 
many cases frock coats of the fashion of half a century 
ago. In the latter part of the war, being unable to 
replenish their wardrobes in the normal way, many 
of them wore uniforms taken from British prisoners. 
This was a violation of the rules of civilised warfare 
as laid down by the Hague War Regulations, which 
enact that combatants must wear 'a distinctive em- 
blem recognisable at a distance'; but in the circum- 
stances it would have been exceedingly difficult for 
them to have obeyed this regulation. 

Stanza 3. Camp and cattle guards. When a col- 
umn is not on the march pickets are thrown out to 
guard the camp, and men are sent to herd and guard 
the horses and oxen as they graze. If opportunity 
offers, these guards will wile away the time by sniping 
at the enemy. 

Boer bread. The bread used by the Boers in the 
field was very much like what is known as 'pulled 
bread.' They made bread in the ordinary way, then 
broke up the loaves into small lumps and baked these 

267 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

again. In this form the bread kept its freshness 
much longer than it would otherwise have done. 
Being crisper and more palatable than British army 
biscuit, it was much appreciated by British soldiers 
who had the luck to raid a Boer camp. 

Biltong. Meat that has been cut into strips and 
dried in the sun. It will keep thus for a long period. 
It is eaten without any further preparation. 

Dop. Coarse kind of brandy made by Afrikander 
farmers. 

Stanza 4. An' borrowed all my Sunday clo'es. 
(See note, 'Stellenbosh,' stanza 2, p. 264.) 

Spoored. Spoor is Afrikander-Dutch for footprints. 
The verb therefore means to track a man or a beast 
by following its footprints. 

You've sold me many a pup. Often tricked me. 

l, Ands up!' The sign of surrender. 

Stanza 5. From Plewmans to Marabastad. Plew- 
man's is just to the south of Colesberg in Cape 
Colony, and Marabastad is in the northern Transvaal. 
The two places are connected by railway; the line 
between them formed the longest stretch of railway 
line in the war area. 

From Ookeip to De Aar. Ookeip is a village in 
Namaqualand, which was besieged by Smuts in April, 
1902. De Aar is the junction of the Cape Town and 
Port Elizabeth railways. Between Ookeip and De 
Aar lies the longest stretch of war area unserved by 
any railway line. 

268 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

The drive. At the beginning of 1902, though the 
main Boer forces were broken, there were still 25,000 
Boers in the field. These had dispersed into small 
bands and were carrying on guerilla warfare. To 
suppress these bands Lord Kitchener organised a 
series of * drives,' in which small British forces moving 
in line with each other, and in communication with 
each other, swept across the country, capturing or 
driving before them such Boer commandos as they 
encountered. 

Stanza 6. Blockhouse fence. Before the system 
of * drives' was initiated, long lines of blockhouses, 
within range of each other and connected by barbed 
wire fences, were built across and across the war area. 
The effect of these blockhouses was two-fold. Before 
the system was adopted the British mobile columns 
could not operate far away from the railways, on 
which they were dependent for supplies: when the 
lines of blockhouses were built they served to protect 
convoys that, by keeping close to them, could advance 
far into the war area to feed the mobile columns, which 
were thus freed from the necessity of returning period- 
ically to the railways. The lines also served to check 
the movements of the Boer commandos, which could 
not cross them without coming under the fire of those 
who garrisoned the blockhouses. 

Gifts and loans. After the declaration of peace the 
British Government issued the sum of £3,000,000, to 
be spent on giving the Boer farmers a new start in life. 

269 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

They were supplied with stock, seed-corn, etc., and 
allowed to borrow money free of interest. The Gov- 
ernment ploughed the land of those to whom it could 
not immediately issue draught-oxen. 
Frow. Wife. 

'WILFUL MISSING' 

, Stanza 4. Name, number, record. Each British 
soldier carried sewn into a pocket of his tunic a 
parchment — colloquially known as his photograph — 
on which was written his name, regimental number, 
address of his nearest relative, etc. A man who died 
on the field could thus be identified. A man who 
deserted could cover his tracks by putting his tunic, 
with his identification card in its pocket, on to the 
body of a dead Boer. 

Stanza 9. Domino. In the game of dominoes a 
player who has played all his 'cards' says 'Domino' 
to his opponent. 

UBIQUE 

The Royal Regiment of Artillery is divided into 
Horse Artillery, Field Artillery, and Garrison Artil- 
lery. Each branch bears the motto Ubique ('every- 
where'). 

Stanza 2. You've caught the flash and timed it by 
the sound. Light travels faster than sound. If the 
time that elapses between the flash of a gun's dis- 
charge and the sound of its report reaching the ob- 

270 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

server is carefully noted, it will be possible to ascertain 
how far away the gun is situated. 

Stanza 3. Ubique means Blue Fuse, an make the 
'ole to sink the trail. The trail is that part of a gun 
which is connected to the limber when the gun-carriage 
is in motion. When the gun is detached from the 
limber the trail rests on the ground. As the trail is 
on one side of the axle, and the muzzle of the gun on 
the other, the trail must be sunk into a hole in the 
ground when, in order to give the gun its greatest 
possible range, it is desired to elevate the muzzle. 
The fuses used in shells that are to burst at extreme 
range are painted blue. 

Stanza 4. Bank, 'Olborn, Bank. Many of the 
horses used by the Field Artillery in the South African 
War had been purchased from the London Omnibus 
Companies. It therefore became a standing joke in 
the columns to greet Field Artillery on the march with 
the cries of London 'bus conductors. 

De Wet. The Boer general who became famous 
for his success in evading capture. 

Stanza 5. Drift. Ford. 

Khaki muzzles. The guns were painted khaki 
(mud coloured) to make them inconspicuous. 

Stanza 6. R. A. M. R. Infantillery Corps. Royal 
Artillery Mounted Rifles was the official title of the 
gunners who were used for duty during the South 
African War as mounted infantry. 

Stanza 7. Linesman. Foot soldier. Artillery 

271 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

and infantry are of mutual advantage to each other. 
Artillery can help infantry by supplementing its fire, 
and by firing bursting shells can compel the enemy 
to keep close cover. Infantry, on the other hand, 
help artillery by protecting the flanks of the guns. 
When the two arms are co-operating artillery usually 
fires over the heads of its own infantry. 

Stanza 8. Colesberg Kop. A precipitous isolated 
hill, 800 feet high, near Colesberg, in Cape Colony. 
The 4th Battery dragged two fifteen-pounders to the 
top, from which, by sinking the trails, they were able 
to obtain a range of nearly 9000 yards. 

Quaggcis Poort. On the west of Cape Colony, near 
Sutherland. 

Ninety-nine. The South African War began on 
October nth, 1899. 

RECESSIONAL 

A recessional is a hymn sung when clergy and choir 
leave the church at the end of a service. 

This poem was published on the 17th July, 1897, 
towards the close of the celebration of Queen Vic- 
toria's Diamond Jubilee. The Prime Ministers of all 
the self-governing colonies, troops from these colonies, 
Imperial Service Troops sent by native Indian princes, 
Hausas from the West Coast of Africa, Negroes from 
the West Indies, Zaptiehs from Cyprus, Chinamen 
from Hong Kong, even Dyaks from Borneo, took 
part in ceremonies of unparalleled splendour. One 

272 



THE FIVE NATIONS 

hundred and sixty-five vessels of the Royal Navy as- 
sembled for review. The poem was an appropriate 
monition at a time when the British people might well 
have been dazzled by the pomp that typified the 
* might, majesty, dominion, and power' of the greatest 
empire in the world's history. 

There are in this poem, with one exception, no 
literal quotations from the Bible such as are found in 
many of Rudyard Kipling's other poems, but the 
following references show that in his choice of words 
he has been considerably under the influence of the 
Authorised Version. 

Deuteronomy vi. 12: 'Then beware lest thou for- 
get the Lord, which brought thee forth out of 
the land of Egypt.' 
Job xxxix. 25: 'The thunder of the captains, and 

the shouting.' 
Psalm li. 17: 'The sacrifices of God are a broken 
spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, 
Thou wilt not despise.' 
Psalm xc. 4: 'For a thousand years in Thy sight 

are but as yesterday.' 
Nahum iii. 7: 'Nineveh is laid waste: who will 

bemoan her?' 
Romans ii. 14: 'The Gentiles, which have not the 
law/ 



273 



Songs from 'Books 

The order of the following notes on the songs and chapter 
headings in Mr. Kipling's prose works follows the order of 
the collected volume of these poems published in the au- 
tumn of 1913 under the title Songs from Books. In several 
cases the collected edition of these contains portions of 
poems that did not appear in the prose works. 

PUCK'S SONG 

This song as published in Songs from Books contains more 
stanzas than the version which appears in Puck of Pook's Hill. 
The numbers given in parentheses refer to the order of the stanzas 
as they appear in Puck of Pook's Hill. 

In this song Puck sings of the history of the county 
of Sussex. 

Stanza 1. Trafalgar. This word is usually mis- 
pronounced in English. The accent should be on the 
last syllable. 

Stanza 2. Bayhams mouldering walls. Bayham 
Abbey is in the Weald, five miles to the south-east of 
Tunbridge Wells, and on the border between Kent 
and Sussex. It belonged to the White Canons. A 
Tudor mansion took the place of the abbey at the 
Reformation, but ruins of the church and a gateway 
are still standing. 

274 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

Stanzas 3 and 4 (1). From the earliest days down 
to the end of the eighteenth century iron was worked 
in Sussex, timber from the Weald being used to smelt 
it. The decline of the industry was due to the grad- 
ual disappearance of the timber and to the discovery 
of the process of smelting with coal instead of charcoal, 
a discovery which made it possible to smelt iron more 
cheaply in the north of England, where coal and iron 
are found side by side, than in Sussex. A Roman 
forge in the parish of Burwash is mentioned by Par- 
nesius in the story 'A Centurion of the Twentieth/ 
and the allied trades of cannon-founding and gun- 
running are the subject of the story 'Hal o' the Draft.' 
All the guns used in the Tudor navy were forged in 
Sussex. 

Stanza 5 (2). The story 'Below the Mill Dam/ in 
Traffics and Discoveries, has for its subject a water- 
mill older than Domesday Book. 

Stanza 7 (4). The pasture-land to the south of 
the town of Rye was covered by sea in the days when 
Alfred the Great built a navy with which to drive off 
the Norse pirates. The Norsemen sailed up the 
Rother, the river which makes the port of Rye, in 
893 a. d., and left one of their galleys behind them. 
This galley was found in the year 1822 buried under 
10 feet of sand and mud in a field at Northiam, near 
the present channel of the Rother, but several miles 
from the sea. 

Stanzas 9 and 10 (6 and 7). There are a number of 

275 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

ancient camps — Roman, British, and Neolithic — on 
the Sussex Downs. Two of these, known as Cissbury 
Ring and Chanctonbury Ring, are believed to be from 
four to six thousand years old. Cissbury, inside of 
which are the remains of a number of flint-quarries, 
must have been for the south of England what Shef- 
field is to-day. The flint-workings are far more ex- 
tensive than local needs could have required, and 
tools made there probably passed from tribe to tribe 
over a wide area at a time when London, if it existed 
at all, was only a pile-built fishing village. When the 
Romans came they made camps of their own, but also 
made use of the fortifications constructed by Neo- 
lithic men many centuries before Caesar landed in 
Britain. 

As some of the embankments of these prehistoric 
towns are still as much as 30 feet high they are easily 
seen. Others, lower and more worn, are difficult to 
trace. Standing actually on them, it is not obvious 
that the rise of the ground is artificial, and one must 
go some distance, away and get something of a bird's- 
eye view in order to realise that what seemed at first 
a chance hillock is really part of a definite scheme of 
fortification. Even then one can only detect the 
lines of the earthworks under favourable atmospheric 
conditions. On a warm day there is too much heat 
shimmer in the air. Camps can most easily be seen 
after rain, when the air is cool and clear. After rain, 
too, surface accumulations of dust are washed away 

276 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

and the permanent outlines of what lies below it are 
revealed. (See also 'Sussex/ stanza 6, p. 217.) 

Stanza 11(8). Salt marsh where now is corn. The 
coast-line of Sussex has altered considerably within 
historical times. Wilfrid's cathedral and monastery 
(see note, 'Sussex,' stanza 7, p. 219) long ago disap- 
peared below the sea, but, on the other hand, the sea 
has receded a mile and more from the old ports of 
Rye, Winchelsea, and Pevensey, and cattle now graze 
where Norse, Norman, and Plantagenet ships once 
sailed. 

A THREE-PART SONG . 

Weald, marsh, and chalk down are the three char- 
acteristics of Sussex. On the south 'levels,' formerly 
undrained marshes, alternate with lofty chalk downs 
running east and west, roughly parallel with the coast. 
To the north of the Downs stretches the Weald, which 
was all forest land until the growth of the iron in- 
dustry, which needed charcoal for smelting, caused 
the destruction of the timber. 

Stanza 3. Brenzett is a low-lying village between 
Romney Marsh and Wayland Marsh. 

Stanza 4. Firle and Ditchling Beacons are the two 
highest points in the county. 

THE RUN OF THE DOWNS 

The places mentioned in this poem are the most 
prominent points of the South Downs westwards from 

277 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

Beachy Head. Near Mount Harry, Henry in. de- 
feated the Barons under Simon de Montfort. A 
large cross cut in the turf on the west side of it, now 
overgrown, is supposed to have been made to invoke 
prayers for the souls of those who died in the battle. 
Truleigh, Duncton, Linch, and Treyford are men- 
tioned in Domesday Book under the names Traigli, 
Donechitone, Lince, and Treverde. King Alfred had 
a park near Ditchling Beacon. The Long Man of 
Wilmington (see note, 'Sussex,' stanza 9, p. 220) was 
cut on the side of Winddoor Hill. The Roman road 
from Chichester to London passed over Bignor Hill, 
and traces of Roman occupation have been found 
near Ditchling Beacon. Chanctonbury Ring became 
a Roman camp, but it was made by Neolithic men 
many centuries before Rome was built (see notes on 
'Puck's Song,' stanzas 9 and 10, p. 275, and on 
'Sussex,' stanza 4, p. 217). 

BROOKLAND ROAD 

Stanza 3. Duntin . Dunting, literally 'striking 
with a dull-sounding blow.' 

Stanza 6. Goodman s Farm. The Goodwin Sands, 
six miles from the east coast of Kent. There is a 
tradition to the effect that they are all that is left of 
an island called Lomea, which belonged to Earl 
Godwin. This island passed into the hands of the 
Abbot of St. Augustine, Canterbury, who devoted 
the money which he should have spent in keeping its 

278 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

sea-wall in repair to the building of Tenterden steeple. 
In 1099 the island was swamped by the sea. Hence 
there is a cryptic saying in Kent, 'Tenterden steeple 
was the cause of Goodwin Sands/ 

Stanza 7. Fairfield Church stands in a lonely part 
of Romney Marsh between Brookland and Apple- 
dore. Though about five miles from the nearest 
coast it is only fifteen feet above sea-level. Built 
of old red brick and roofed with shingles, the tiny 
church is interesting rather than beautiful. It is 
one of the churches that were formerly used by 
smugglers. 

SIR RICHARD'S SONG 

Stanza 1. Fief and fee. Land granted by a feudal 
lord in return for military and other services. The 
duke referred to is William the Conqueror, Duke of 
Normandy. In the story 'Young Men at the Manor* 
{Puck of Pook's Hill), Sir Richard Dalynridge holds 
his land from de Aquila on condition of supplying him, 
when required to do so, with six mounted men or 
twelve archers, three bags of seed-corn yearly, and of 
giving him entertainment for two days in each year 
in the Great Hall of the Manor. 

A TREE SONG 

The date attached to this poem in Songs from Books, 
1200 a. d., is the year in which Layamon, the early 
English poet, wrote his chronicle Brut, which con- 

279 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

tained an account of Brutus, the Trojan, and of his 
more or less mythical kingly descendants, Bladud, 
Lear, Lud, Cymbeline, Vortigern, Uther, Arthur, and 
others. 

Stanza 2. Brut, Brute, or Brutus was grandson 
of Aeneas of Troy. Having killed his father by acci- 
dent, he fled to Britain and became the first king of 
the Britons. He founded New Troy (Troy Novant) 
where London now stands. This legend was invented 
by mediaeval etymologists to explain why London was 
called Troy Novant. The word is really a corruption 
of Trinovantes, the name of a British tribe conquered 
by the Romans in 43 a. d. The similarity between 
the names Bryt, a Briton, and Brutus supplies the 
source of the rest of the legend. 

Stanza 5. A-conjuring Summer in! It was the 
custom throughout Europe in pre-Christian days (and 
still is the custom in Italy) to dance round bonfires on 
the hilltops on Midsummer Eve. Christian priests 
objected first to the custom, but later gave it a Chris- 
tian significance by dedicating Midsummer Day to 
St. John the Baptist. 

A CHARM 

Stanza 3. Candelmas — 2nd February. An an- 
cient Church festival to commemorate the presenta- 
tion of the infant Christ in the Temple. It is so called 
because since the eleventh century it has been the 
custom of the Roman Catholic Church to consecrate 

280 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

on that day all the candles that will be needed for 
church use throughout the year. 

Simples. Herbalists used to apply this name to 
plants that they used medicinally. 

CHAPTER HEADINGS 

PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS 
IN THE HOUSE OF SUDDHOO 
'a stone's throw out on either hand' 

Churel and ghoul and Djinn and sprite. A churel 
is 'the ghost of a woman who has died in childbed. 
She haunts lonely roads, her feet are turned back- 
wards on the ankles, and she leads men to torment/ 
When Kim overheard the conspiracy to murder Mah- 
bub Ali at Umballa station, in order to have an 
excuse for leaving his sleeping-place, he pretended to 
have a nightmare and rose screaming out that he had 
seen the churel. 

Djinn. (See note, 'The Captive/ line 7, p. 290.) 

CUPID'S ARROWS 
'pit where the buffalo cooled his hide' 

Log in the reh-grass, hidden and lone; 

Bund where the earth-rat's mounds are strown. 
The version of this poem that appears in Plain Tales 
from the Hills has 'plume-grass' for 'reh-grass' and 
'dam' for 'bund/ 

281 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 



COLD IRON 



In European folklore iron is held to have power to 
drive away witches, fairies, or any supernatural be- 
ings. Iron horseshoes nailed to stable-doors protect 
the horses from being ridden by witches. The super- 
stition probably comes down from prehistoric days, 
when those tribes who knew how to make weapons of 
iron had an immense advantage over those whose 
weapons were made of nothing better than wood and 
stone. It has been shown elsewhere (see note, 'A 
Pict Song,' p. 296) that, so far as Great Britain is 
concerned, the . aboriginal Picts were probably the 
ancestors of the more modern fairies. In Scotland, 
if a man blasphemes, it sometimes happens that 
those who hear him will call out 'Cauld aim,' and 
all present will touch the nails in their boots or 
the nearest piece of iron. When the passage of 
the Bible about devils entering into the Gadarene 
swine is being read in a Scotch church, the fisher- 
men in the congregation have been known to whisper 
* cauld aim.' 

A SONG OF KABIR 

Kabir was a religious reformer of northern India 
who lived and preached in the earlier part of the 
fifteenth century. Both Hindoos and Mohammedans 
claim him to have been born within their fold. He 
taught the Unity of the Godhead, the vanity of idols, 

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the powerlessness of both Brahmans (Hindoo priests) 
and mullahs (Mohammedan priests) to guide or help, 
and the divine origin of the human soul. He pro- 
claimed that distinctions of creed have no importance 
in the eyes of God, that all men are brothers, and that 
it is a crime to take the life of any living creature. 
'No act of devotion can equal truth,' he said, 'no 
crime is so bad as falsehood.' Kabir's followers have 
been compared to Quakers on account of their hatred 
of bloodshed and their unobtrusive piety. The relig- 
ion of the Sikhs was at first largely based on the 
teachings of Kabir. 

Stanza I. Guddee. (See note, 'Shiva and the 
Grasshopper,' stanza i, p. 285.) 

Bairagi. A mendicant member of the sect founded 
by Ramananda, to which Kabir belonged. Though 
most members of this sect are of the sudra or lowest 
caste, it is open to men of all castes. Ramananda's 
chief disciples included a weaver, a currier, a Rajput, 
a Jat, a barber, and several Brahmans. 

Stanza 2. The sal and the kikar are two shade 
trees, bastard teak and acacia. The former is grown 
in the Central Provinces of India; the latter is found 
in the Punjab. 

He is seeking the Way. (See note on 'Buddha at 
Kamakura,' stanza 2, p. 224.) Kabir was in no sense 
a Buddhist, but his definition of the Way, had he 
left one, would probably have been very similar to 
that of Gautama. 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

'MY NEW-CUT ASHLAR' 

This poem appeared originally as an envoy to the 
volume Life's Handicap. 

Ashlar is a word used by builders and architects for a 
hewn or squared stone used in facing a wall. In free- 
masonry the word has a symbolic meaning. Rough 
stone as it comes from the quarry symbolises man un- 
regenerate and ignorant, whereas the ashlar, the stone 
that is properly cut and fit for a place in the temple, 
symbolises a man whose mind is freed from earthly 

taints. 

EDDI'S SERVICE 

Eddi (Aeddi or Eddius) was a Kentishman who was 
choirmaster (and later biographer) of Wilfrid, Arch- 
bishop of York (see note on ' Sussex/ stanza 7, p. 219). 

Manhood was the name of the * hundred' or dis- 
trict granted to Wilfrid by Ethelwalch, King of the 
South Saxons. It was among the * levels' which now 
terminate in Selsey Bill. 

The date attached to this poem, 687 a. d., was the 
year following Wilfrid's return to York. Possibly 
Eddi found the newly converted Sussex men less 
tractable when his master's dominating personality 
was withdrawn. 

SHIV AND THE GRASSHOPPER 

Shiva, the third god in the Hindoo Trinity, is the 
Destroyer (Brahma is the Creator and Vishnu the 

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Preserver). As, however, Death, in Hindoo belief, is 
merely a transition to a new form of life, Shiva is 
really a re-creator, and is therefore styled the Bright 
or Happy One. 

Stanza i. Guddee. Cushion of state, throne — 
thus any seat of office or power. 

Mahadeo. The 'Great' God. 

THE FAIRIES' SIEGE 

Stanza 3. To the Triple Crown I would not bow 
down. The Triple Crown is the triregnum or tiara of 
the Popes. It has no sacred character, being solely 
the ensign of sovereign power. It is therefore never 
worn at liturgical functions, when the Pope always 
wears the mitre. 

A SONG TO MITHRAS 

Mithras was the god of light and identified with the 
sun. Though originally a minor Persian deity, his 
worship began to be adopted by the Romans during 
the first century b. c. It did not become popular till 
the second century a. d., by the end of which it was 
well established, especially among Roman soldiers. 

He was the giver of victory, the protector of armies, 
and the champion of heroes. His worshippers had 
to be truthful, loyal, pure, and brave in fight, both 
against human foes and the forces of evil. 

He was worshipped at sunrise, noon, and sunset, 
his worshippers facing east, south, and west in turn, 

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but the most ceremonial form of worship was enacted 
at night-time in underground temples. 

The 30th Legion was stationed at the Roman 
Wall at the date assigned to this poem (circa 350 
a. d.). See 'A Centurion of the Thirtieth/ 'On 
the Great Wall,' and 'Winged Hats' in Puck of 
Pook's Hill. In 360 the Scots and Picts, to with- 
stand whom the wall (see below) was built, invaded 
Britain. 

Stanza 1. The Wall. Hadrian's Wall, stretching 
from Solway Firth to Tyne. Septimus Severus re- 
built it in 208 a. d., from which time till the de- 
parture of the Romans it was the northern frontier 
in Britain of the Roman Empire. The more northern 
wall, built by Antoninus Pius, was abandoned in 
185 A. D. 

Stanza 4. Here where the great bull dies. Bulls 
were sacrificed to Mithras because one of the most 
important acts of mythical Mithras, before he 
was received among the immortals, was the sacri- 
fice of a bull, by means of which sacrifice life was 
created. 

THE NEW KNIGHTHOOD 

For the various ceremonies connected with the con- 
ferring of knighthood — the Bath, the laying on of the 
sword, the buckling of the belt and spurs, etc. — see 
note on 'The last Rhyme of True Thomas,' stanzas 4 
and 5, p. 156. 

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OUTSONG IN THE JUNGLE 

In the Jungle Books (to which this poem forms an 
envoy) Mowgli, called the 'wise Frog/ is a child who 
has been reared from infancy by wolves, and has be- 
come intimate with, and learned the speech of, all 
the inhabitants of the jungle. Baloo is the Bear that 
taught him the Jungle-law. Tabaqui is the jackal, 
the attendant of Shere Khan, the tiger whom Mow- 
gli slew. Kaa is the big rock-python that saved 
Mowgli from the Bandar-log, the monkey-folk. 
Bagheera is the panther, who always swears 'by 
the Broken-Lock' that freed him from captivity 
among men in the King's Palace at Oodeypore; 
he paid for Mowgli's admission to the Wolf-pack. 
The Flower is fire, the special possession of men- 
folk. 

A ST. HELENA LULLABY 

The rioting in Paris streets which brought about 
primarily the fall of the Bastille and ultimately the 
downfall of the French monarchy gave Napoleon 
Bonaparte his opportunity. At Austerlitz, by defeat- 
ing the combined Austrian and Russian armies, he 
made himself master of the Continent of Europe. 
He was crowned Emperor of the French 'to complete 
his work by rendering it, like his glory, immortal.' At 
Trafalgar he lost his naval power. At the Beresina 
his magnificent army, retreating from Moscow, be- 

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came a terror-stricken rabble, and Waterloo com- 
pleted his downfall. 

Stanza 8. Tr ape sings. Gaddings about. 

CHIL'S SONG 

Chil, the Indian kite, is one of the characters in the 
Jungle Books. He marked the way the Bandar-log 
went when they carried off Mowgli (see note on 'Out- 
song in the Jungle,' p. 287), and thus enabled Mowgli's 
friends, Baloo, Bagheera, and Kaa, to recover him. 
Chil is described as 'a cold-blooded kind of creature 
at heart,' because he knows that almost everybody 
in the jungle comes to him in the long run. 

Stanza 2. They that bade the sambhur wheel. The 
sambhur is the Indian elk. Wolves hunting in packs 
make a division of labour. While some keep the game 
on the run others lie in ambush in places it is likely to 
pass, and by showing themselves at the right moment 
make it wheel. The game is thus driven backwards 
and forwards and becomes exhausted more quickly 
than the wolves that are hunting it. 

They that shunned the level horn. When a deer is 
at bay it holds its head low down between its forefeet 
and its horns advanced parallel with the ground in a 
position to gore the first wolf that springs at it. 

THE CAPTIVE 

The poem here noticed is entitled ' The Captive' in Songs from 
Books and 'From the Masjid-al-aqsa of Sayyid Ahmed (Wahabi)' 
in Traffics and Discoveries. 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

The Masjid-al-aqsa literally means 'the most dis- 
tant mosque/ and is a common name among Indian 
Mohammedans for the Temple at Jerusalem. It 
owes special sanctity to the fact that from there, 
according to Mohammedan belief, Mahomet was 
translated to heaven. A Turkish mosque built in 
691 a. d. now bears the name, and is the 'most dis- 
tant' mosque to which pilgrimages from India are 
made. 

Sayyid Ahmed was a learned Mussalman of the 
Wahabi sect, which endeavours to restore Mohammed- 
anism to the primitive simplicity of conduct and 
worship taught by Mahomet. After preaching his 
doctrines with much success in India, Sayyid Ahmed 
in 1822 made the pilgrimage to Mecca. He then 
travelled in Turkey and Arabia, propagating the 
tenets of the Wahabi sect. He returned to India and 
began what might be called a revival mission, de- 
nouncing the superstitions which the Indian Moham- 
medans had borrowed from the Hindoos. The official 
Mohammedan leaders opposed him, and the dispute 
led to the reformers being interdicted by the British 
Government in 1827. Sayyid Ahmed then went to 
the Punjab accompanied by a hundred thousand 
disciples. In 1829 he declared a holy war against the 
Sikhs and made himself master of Peshawur. Soon 
afterwards, however, his Afghan allies deserted him, 
finding his austerities too rigorous for their tastes. 
Sayyid Ahmed fled across the Indus, and in 183 1 

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encountered a body of Sikhs under Sher Singh, by 
whom he was put to death. Sayyid Ahmed's chief 
literary work was entitled Tambihu-l-ghafilin, or 
'Awakener of the Heedless.' The poem here attrib- 
uted to him was, however, written by Rudyard 
Kipling. 

Embroidered with names of the Djinns. The Djinns, 
according to Mohammedan mythology, are spirits 
midway in rank between men and angels. Whoever 
knows the name of a Djinn and uses it with proper pre- 
cautions has power to command its owner to perform 
wonderful things. A carpet embroidered with the 
names of Djinns, therefore, could only be possessed 
by a great magician. Mohammedans believe that the 
Djinns built the Pyramids and used formerly to spy 
on the secrets of heaven. 

HADRAMAUTI 

The sixth stanza only of this poem, as it appears in Songs from 
Books, is to be found in Plain Tales from the Hills. It introduces 

the story ' A Friend's Friend.' 

Hadramaut is a district on the south coast of Arabia. 
Its inhabitants are of the most aristocratic and con- 
servative type of Arab. A large proportion of them 
are Seyyids (descendants of Hosain, grandson of 
Mahomet). 

Stanza 2. Booted, bareheaded he enters. An Arab 
on entering a building removes his shoes but keeps 
on his headgear. 

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He asks of us news of the household. Although 
woman's position in Arabia is higher than it is in 
Mohammedan India — in tribal wars a woman riding in 
a camel-litter often accompanies her tribesmen sing- 
ing songs in praise of her own people and of insult to 
the enemy — they are as rigidly secluded. No man 
mentions his own wife in conversation or speaks of 
another's. The utmost that politeness allows among 
intimate friends is a casual inquiry as to the health 
of a man's 'household.' 

Stanza 3 . / refreshed him, I fed him 

As he were even a brother. 
Hospitality is a sacred duty among the Arabs. The 
wealthier members of a community will dispute 
among themselves for the privilege of receiving a 
guest, and a host will defend his guest at peril of his 
own life. 

Eblis. The chief of the fallen angels. He was 
cast out of heaven for refusing to worship Adam. 

Stanza 4. He talked with his head, hands, and 
feet. I endured him with loathing. According to 
Burckhardt, one of the few Europeans who have 
succeeded in visiting Mecca, the Arab is studi- 
ously calm, and rarely so much as raises his voice 
in a dispute. But his outward tranquillity con- 
ceals a passionate and revengeful nature. A rash 
jest may be revenged years after it has been 
uttered. 

Stanza 6. / gave him rice and goat's flesh. Rice 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

and meat of any kind are luxuries among the Arabs. 
Their staple food is bread made of roughly-ground 
wheat, beans, lentils, and dates. 

CHAPTER HEADINGS 

THE NAULAHKA 

'beat off in our last fight were we'? 

Caravel and Picaroon. A caravel was a light trading 
vessel of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, usually 
armed to resist attack. A -picaroon was a pirate 
ship. 

Every sun-dried buccaneer 

Must hand and reef and watch and steer. 
The qualifications of an A. B. (able seaman) as dis- 
tinct from an ordinary seaman are that he must know 
how to hand (furl sails), reef (reduce the area of a sail), 
and steer. To watch in this sense is to keep a look-out 
at night. 

'we be gods of the east' 

To the life that he knows where the altar-fl,ame 
glows and the tulsi is trimmed in the 
urns. 
The tulsi plant (holy basil) is consecrated to Vishnu 
and Krishna and is worshipped by the women-folk 
of every Hindoo household. It grows on the altar 
before the house or in a pot placed in one of the front 
windows. 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

THE LIGHT THAT FAILED 

'the lark will make her hymn to god' 

Stanza 2. 'Tis dule to know not night from morn. 
'Dule' is a Scottish word for misery. It appears in 
the better known word 'doleful/ 

'yet at the last, ere our spearmen had 
found him' 

Though the Kafirs had maimed him. Kafirs in this 
context means 'unbelievers,' men who do not accept 
Mahomet as a Prophet of God. 

He called upon Allah, and died a believer! Moham- 
medans believe it necessary for a man's salvation that 
he should at least once in a lifetime declare that 'there 
is no God but God; Mahomet is the apostle of God' 
(' la ilaha illa-llahu ; Muhammad rasul allahi ') . Mun- 
go Park relates that he saw drivers of Arab slave 
caravans, though utterly callous to the bodily welfare 
of their victims, endeavour to ensure that none 
of them should die pagan. If a slave fell dying on 
the march they would urge him to utter the profes- 
sion of Faith before they abandoned him to the vul- 
tures. 

GALLIO'S SONG 

'And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the 
Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, 

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and brought him to the judgment seat. . . . And 
when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio 
said unto the Jews, "If it were a matter of wrong or 
wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I 
should bear with you : but if it be a question of words 
and names, and of your law, look ye to it ; for I will 
be no judge of such matters." And he drave them 
from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took 
Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat 
him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for 
none of those things' (Acts xviii. 12-17). 

Stanza 2. This maker of tents. 'And because he 
(Paul) was of the same craft, he abode with them, and 
wrought: for by their occupation they were tent- 
makers' (Acts xviii. 3). 

Lictor. The officer who attended a Roman magis- 
trate and kept order in his presence. 

Stanza 4. Claudius Ccesar hath set me here. In 
the second verse of the chapter quoted above it ap- 
pears indirectly that Claudius was Emperor when 
Gallio was deputy of Achaia. Aquila, the tentmaker 
with whom Paul lodged, had lately come from Italy, 
'because that Claudius had lately commanded all 
jews to depart from Rome.' 

Stanza 5. This stanza is not included in the ver- 
sion of the poem that appears in Actions and Reac- 
tions. 

Whether ye follow Priapus or Paul. Priapus was 
the most obscene of the Greek gods. Originally the 

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personification of the fruitfulness of nature, he came 
to be regarded as the god of sensuality. His symbol 
was the phallus. 

THE BEES AND THE FLIES 

Aristaeus, son of Apollo and Cyrene, possessed 
some swarms of bees which the gods destroyed. To 
learn why they had robbed him, Aristaeus surprised 
Proteus and bound him with chains. Proteus, after 
making vigorous but futile efforts to escape — such as 
turning himself in turn into a fire, a fierce savage, and 
a running river — revealed the secret that the gods had 
destroyed the bees of Aristaeus to punish him for his 
conduct to Eurydice. Cyrene then tells her son that 
he must appease the nymphs by sacrificing four choice 
bulls of beauteous form and four heifers who had 
never felt the yoke. He does so, and nine days after- 
wards visits the carcasses of the cattle he had sacri- 
ficed. He finds them full of bees which promptly 
swarm on a neighbouring tree. 

In the fourth book of the Georgics, which is devoted 
to hints, many of them eminently practical, on the 
keeping of bees, Virgil recounts this tale and gives the 
following instructions for the replacing of lost swarms: 
— Build a shed with four windows towards the four 
winds; drive a two-year-old steer into it and there 
suffocate it; then cover the carcass with boughs of 
trees, thyme, and cassia. A swarm of bees will soon 
emerge from the carrion.' 

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Bees, as a matter of fact, have been known to hive 
in a decaying carcass, but the method here advocated 
of obtaining new swarms has not met with general 
favour among bee-keepers ! 

ROAD SONG OF THE BANDAR-LOG 

The Bandar-log are the monkey-people. Accord- 
ing to the story 'Kaa's Hunting' in The Jungle Book, 
they are known in the jungle as 'the people without 
a Law/ Baloo, the Bear, told Mowgli, the Man-cub, 
that 'They are outcaste. They are without leaders. 
They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter 
and pretend that they are a great people about to do 
great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns 
their minds to laughter and all is forgotten.' 

A BRITISH ROMAN SONG 

The withdrawal of Roman troops from Britain 
began in 401 a. d. In 406 a. d., the date ascribed to 
this poem, the remaining Roman troops in Britain 
elected their own emperor. 

The Seven Hills are the seven hills on which Rome 
was built. 

A PICT SONG 

We are the Little Folk. That the Picts were a 'little 
folk' physically as well as numerically is evident from 
the remains that exist of their beehive-shaped under- 
ground inhabitations, in which it is impossible for 

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a modern average-sized man to stand erect (see David 
MacRitchie's Fians, Fairies, and Picts). It is quite 
possible that vague traditions about the Picts gave 
rise to many of the popular beliefs about fairies. As 
what was known about them became more and more 
vague with the lapse of time, their smallness may well 
have been exaggerated, until we get the conventional 
idea of a fairy small enough to lie in a cowslip bell and 
fly on a bat's back. 

RIMINI 

Only the first stanza of this song appears in Puck of 
Pook'sHill. 

In the story 'On the Great Wall' {Puck of Pook's 
Hill), Parnesius said that this song was 'one of the 
tunes that are always being born somewhere in the 
Empire. They run like a pestilence for six months or 
a year, till another one pleases the Legions, and then 
they march to that.' 

Stanza I . Rimini is the Roman Ariminum on the 
Adriatic coast. The Pontic shore is the shore of the 
Black Sea. 

Stanza 2. Via Aurelia. This road ran along the 
Italian coast from Rome to Genoa. 

Stanza 4. Narbo. Narbo or Narbo Martius is 
the modern Narbonne in France. It was there that 
the Romans founded their first colony in Gaul. 
When Rome was tottering to her fall it was occupied 
in turn by Alans, Suevi, and Vandals. Finally it was 

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captured in 413 by the Visigoths, who eventually 
made it their capital. 

The Eagles. The insignia carried by the Roman 
legions. In this context it means the troops that 
followed the Eagles. 

'POOR HONEST MEN' 

Stanza 1. Virginny. Virginia tobacco. 

Churchwarden. A clay pipe with a long slender 
stem; the most popular form of pipe in the eighteenth 
century. 

Stanza 2. The Capes of the Delaware. The last 
American land sighted by ships bound from Phila- 
delphia to Europe. 

They press half a score of us. During the Napoleonic 
wars all British seamen, between the ages of eighteen 
and fifty-five, with some privileged exceptions, were 
liable to be compelled to serve in the Navy. British 
men-of-war often stopped vessels on the high seas and 
impressed their crews. They were supposed to leave 
on board enough men to work the ship, but they were 
not over-generous in the matter. On one occasion 
a homeward bound East Indiaman had so many men 
taken out of her that immediately afterwards she had 
to surrender to a small French privateer. 

Stanza 4. New canvas to bend. New sails to set 
in place of those damaged by the cruiser's guns. 

Off the Azores. Before the introduction of steam 
the Islands of the Azores — as the Spaniards found to 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

their cost when Sir Richard Grenville cruised there — 
were of immense strategic importance in maritime 
warfare. Standing as they do almost in the centre 
of the North Atlantic, all ships bound to Europe from 
North or South America, or from eastwards of the 
Cape of Good Hope, had to pass near them. They 
therefore afforded an excellent base for privateers. 

Stanza 5. Roll, twist, and leaf. The three forms 
into which Virginia tobacco was made up. 

Stanza 6. A 'stern-chaser' is a gun directed over 
the stern of a vessel that carries it, in which position 
it can be used against a pursuing vessel. A ship's fore 
braces keep her yards in position, and if these are cut 
by a cannon shot the ship's squaresails, which depend 
from the yards, become temporarily useless. A ship 
fighting another to the death would pound away at her 
hull with the intention of sinking her. A ship whose 
chief object was to escape would, on the other hand, 
gain more advantage by cutting up her pursuer's rig- 
ging, thus compelling her to stop and renew it. 

Stanza 7. 'Twix the Forties and Fifties. 
South- Eastward the drift is. 
The Capes of the Delaware are in 39 N. The Land's 
End is just north of 50 . The course of a vessel 
bound from the Delaware River to the English Chan- 
nel is therefore almost entirely between latitudes 40 
N. and 50 N. When thick weather makes it difficult 
to take observations with which to correct her course, 
she is liable to make her first landfall at Ushant, the 

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southern gatepost of the English Channel (in 48 N.) 
as the outer rim of the Gulf Stream from mid-Atlantic 
eastwards has a southerly tendency. 

Stanza 8. Nor'ard. Northward. 

A homeward-bound convoy. During the Napoleonic 
wars British merchant vessels sailed in fleets protected 
by warships. Those bound for the East and West 
Indies, for example, would sail together under the 
escort of men-of-war until they reached the neighbour- 
hood of Madeira, where they would separate and pro- 
ceed independently. The men-of-war would then 
cruise at a rendezvous in the Atlantic until a number 
of homeward-bound vessels had collected, which they 
would then escort to the English Channel. The Brit- 
ish Newfoundland fishing-fleet had a permanent es- 
cort that accompanied it to the Banks, stayed with it 
during the fishing season, and brought it home again. 

Stanza 10. Handspike. An iron-bound wooden 
lever used in handling a muzzle-loading cannon. 

PROPHETS AT HOME 

Stanza 2. Jonah, the prophet, predicted the down- 
fall of Nineveh. The city did not fall, which 'dis- 
pleased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry* 
(Jonah iv. 1). 

JUBAL AND TUBAL-CAIN 

Jubal and Tubal-cain. Jubal and Tubal-cain were 
the sons of Lamech (Genesis iv. 21 and 22). Jubal 

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was 'the father of all such as handle the harp and 
the organ'; Tubal-cain was 'an instructor of every 
artificer in brass and iron.' The two thus typify 
respectively the artistic and the practical tempera- 
ments. 

Stanza 3. New as the Nine point Two, 

Older than Lantech 's slain. 

The Nine point Two is a naval gun, the bore of 
which is 9*2 inches in diameter. 

In Genesis iv. 23 (Authorised Version) Lamech 
confesses, 'I have slain a man to my wounding, 
and a young man to my hurt,' or according to 
the Revised Version, 'I have slain a man for 
wounding me, and a young man for bruising me.' 
The words occur in a poem, the first that appears 
in the Bible. Commentators suggest that the poem 
expresses Lamech's exultation at the power, en- 
abling him to take vengeance for the slightest in- 
jury, which Tubal-cain's new invention will give 
him. 

THE VOORTREKKER 

Voortrekker. An Afrikander word for a pioneer, 
one who 'treks' or travels before or ahead of others 
(see note on the word 'trek,' 'Chant Pagan,' stanza 6, 

P- 253)- 

Line 12. Stamp. Ore-crushing battery. 

Line 13. Blaze. (See note, 'The Explorer,' stanza 
11, p. 212.) 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

A SCHOOL SONG 

Stalky and Co., in which this poem first appeared, is 
dedicated to Cornell Price, Headmaster of the United 
Service College, Westward Ho, Mr. Rudyard Kip- 
ling's old school. In many parts of the book the 
author pays affectionate tribute to the shrewdness, 
the wisdom, and the kindliness of his old headmaster. 
One passage is particularly interesting as showing how, 
under the wise guidance of 'the Head/ he laid the 
foundations of his extraordinarily broad and varied 
knowledge. 

'He gave Beetle' (Kipling's nickname at Westward 
Ho) 'the run of his brown-bound, tobacco-scented 
library. . . . There were scores and scores of 
ancient dramatists; there were Hakluyt, his voyages; 
French translations of Muscovite authors called Push- 
kin and Lermontoff; little tales of a heady and bewil- 
dering nature, interspersed with unusual songs — Pea- 
cock was that writer's name; there was Borrow's 
Lavengro; an odd theme, purporting to be a transla- 
tion of something called a "Rubaiyat," which the 
Head said was a poem not yet come to its own ; there 
were hundreds of volumes of verse — Crashaw, Dryden, 
Alexander Smith, L. E. L., Lydia Sigourney, Fletcher 
and a purple island, Donne, Marlowe's Faust, and — 
this made M'Turk (to whom Beetle conveyed it) sheer 
drunk for three days — Ossian, The Earthly Paradise, 
Atalanta in Calydon, and Rossetti — to name but a few.' 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

Stanza I. Let us now praise famous men. Cf. 
Ecclesiasticus xliv. 1,3,4: ' Let us now praise famous 
men . . . Such as did bear rule in their kingdoms 
. . . Giving counsel by their understanding 
. . . Wise were their words in their instruc- 
tion.' 

Stanza 2. Flung us on a naked shore. Westward 
Ho is on the east side of Barnstaple Bay, North 
Devon. 

Stanza 4. Far and sure our bands have gone — 
Hy-Brasil or Babylon. 
Islands of the Southern Run, 
And cities of Cathaia. 
Hy-Brasil was one of the islands — suchasSt. Brandan's 
Island, the Fortunate Islands, Avalon, Lyonesse, etc. 
— that the geographers of the Middle Ages placed 
somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. A Venetian map 
marks 'I. de Brazi' in the Azores, and in Purdy's 
Chart of the Atlantic, 'corrected to 1830/ it is marked 
in 51 10' N. and 15 50' W. as 'Brazil Rock (high)/ 
Cathaia, down till Tudor times, was the western name 
for China. 

Stanza 6. Each degree of Latitude 
Strung above Creation 
Seeth one {or more) of us. 
As boys educated at the United Service College were 
principally sons of men in the services, it was natural 
that on growing to manhood they, in turn, should dis- 
perse over the globe. 

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OUR FATHERS OF OLD 

The story which precedes this poem ('A Doctor of 
Medicine,' in Rewards and Fairies) has for its central 
character Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654), astrologer, 
physician, and herbalist, who got into serious trouble 
with the College of Physicians in 1649 for translating 
their Pharmacopoeia from Latin into a language that 
all could understand, thus jeopardising the profits 
of medical men. He practised as an astrologer and 
physician in Red Lion Street, Spitalfields, and wrote 
among other works Semeiotica Uranica, or an Astro- 
nomical Judgement. Quotations below from his book, 
* The British Herbal and Family Physician for the use 
of Private Families,' show the great extent to which 
he believed the sciences of astrology and medicine to 
be related. 

Stanza 1. Alexander (wild parsley), according to 
Culpeper, is 'an herb of Jupiter and therefore friendly 
to nature, for it warmeth a cold stomach/ Marigold 
is a herb of the sun and under Leo. It strengthens 
the heart exceedingly. Eyebright, of course, strength- 
ens the eyesight. 'If the herb was but as much used 
as it is neglected, it would half spoil the spectacle- 
maker's trade. ... It also helpeth a weak brain 
or memory. ... It is under the sign of the 
Lion, and Sol claims dominion over it.' Elecampane 
is under Mercury and good for coughs, stitch in the 
side, the teeth, etc. Of Basil Culpeper writes, 'This 

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is the herb which all authors are together by the ears 
about ; and rail at one another like lawyers. Galen and 
Dioscorides hold it not fitting to be taken inwardly, 
and Chrysipus rails at it with downright Billingsgate 
rhetoric. Pliny and the Arabian physicians defend it. 
To Dr. Reason went I, who told me it was an herb 
of Mars, and under the Scorpion, and therefore called 
basillicon, and it is no marvel if it carry a kind of 
virulent quality with it. Being applied to the place 
bitten by venomous beasts, or stung by a wasp or a 
hornet, it speedily draws the poison to it. Every 
like draws its like. Hilarius, a French physician, 
affirms upon his own knowledge, that an acquaint- 
ance of his by common smelling to it, had a scorpion 
bred in his brain/ The seed of the rocket is useful 
against the bitings of the shrew mouse, but it must 
be used with caution, 'for angry Mars rules it, and 
he will sometimes be rusty when he meets with fools/ 
Rue sharpens the wits. Vervain is an herb of Venus. 
Worn as an amulet by itself, it used to be considered 
a safeguard against ague, or, together with a baked 
toad, against scrofula. Cowslip. 'Venus lays claim 
to this herb as her own, and it is under the sign of 
Aries, and our city dames know well enough the oint- 
ment or distilled water of it adds to beauty.' Rose 
of the Sun (or Sun-Dew). 'The sun rules it, and it is 
under the sign of Cancer. There is an usual drink 
made thereof with Aqua Vitae and spices, to good 
purpose used in qualms and passions of the heart/ 

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Stanza 4. From the fourteenth to the end of the 
seventeenth centuries England was scarcely ever en- 
tirely free from plague. Sometimes an epidemic, 
visiting a town or village, killed as many as two-thirds 
of the inhabitants. During the reign of Charles 1., 
if not earlier, the law came into force compelling the 
inhabitants of a plague-stricken house to indicate that 
it was infected by chalking a cross on the door and 
writing underneath ' God have mercy upon us.' When 
the mortality was so great as to dislocate the usual 
arrangements for the disposal of the dead, corpses were 
carried away in carts, the drivers of which patrolled the 
streets ringing a bell and crying/ Bring out your dead/ 

Stanza 5. Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, 
lived in the fifth century b. c. Galen, who lived six 
centuries later, wrote fifteen separate treatises on the 
writings of Hippocrates. Both men were daring 
thinkers, and notable for comparative freedom from 
the superstitions and blind traditions of their age. 

CHAPTER HEADINGS 

BEAST AND MAN IN INDIA 
'dark children of the mere and marsh' 

In his chapter on 'Indian Buffaloes and Pigs,' John 
Lockwood Kipling quotes a native proverb. 'Yoke a 
buffalo and a bullock together and the buffalo will 
head towards the pool, the ox to the upland/ and says, 
'The buffalo bears the sun badly, and to thrive prop- 

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erly should have free access to a pool or mud swamp/ 
In 'Tiger-Tiger' {The Jungle Book) Rudyard Kipling 
describes how buffaloes 'get down into muddy pools 
one after another, and work their way into the mud 
till only their noses and staring china-blue eyes show 
above the surface, and then they lie like logs.' 

Their food the cattle's scorn. John Lockwood Kip- 
ling says that 'one of many unpleasing features in 
the practice of keeping milch buffaloes in great cities 
is the usage of feeding them on stable refuse/ 

Woe to those who dare 

To rouse the herd bull from his keep, 

The wild-boar from his lair. 
In 'Tiger-Tiger' Rudyard Kipling describes the 
killing of Shere Khan, the tiger, by a herd of tame 
buffaloes under Mowgli's directions. In the same 
story he says that the buffaloes, though allowing them- 
selves to be bullied by the herd-children, would tram- 
ple a white man to death. John Lockwood Kipling 
says 'there is something ignominious in a party of 
stalwart British sportsmen being treed by a herd of 
angry buffaloes, and obliged to wait for a rescue at 
the hands of a tiny naked herdsman's child, but this 
has happened.' In the same chapter he says that the 
wild boar has been known to face and defeat a tiger. 

SONG OF THE FIFTH RIVER 

This poem has for its text a saying of Kadmiel, the 
Jew, in 'The Treasure and the Law' {Puck of Pook's 

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Hill). 'There can be no war without gold, and we 
Jews know how the earth's gold moves with the sea- 
sons, and the crops and the winds; circling and loop- 
ing and rising and sinking away like a river — a won- 
derful underground river.' 

A devout Jew, in conversation with the writer of 
these notes, once declared that the prosperity of every 
European country has risen and waned according to 
whether its treatment of the Jews was generous or the 
reverse, and that no country could prosper without 
Jewish inhabitants. He further declared his convic- 
tion that the millennium would come when the Jews 
returned to Palestine and became a united people. 
Asked how, considering their relatively small num- 
bers, they would impose universal peace upon the 
world, and whether they would employ non-Jewish 
armies, he replied that the employment of armies 
would become unnecessary, since they would control 
the world through the money market. No war from 
the Crusades onwards, he said, had ever been waged 
without Jewish consent, and war would have ceased 
long since if the Jews had been able to agree among 
themselves. 

PARADE SONG OF THE CAMP ANIMALS 

Stanza i. We lent to Alexander the strength of 
Hercules. Alexander the Great, after the invasion of 
the Punjab in 328 b. c, retreated westwards, taking 
with him elephants which were used by his successors 

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in their wars. In 302 b. c. Seleucus sent to India for 
a fresh supply, and thenceforward elephants, either 
brought from India or bred in the royal stables, were 
constantly used in the Seleucid armies. It appears, 
however, that the Greeks, instead of attempting to 
drive the elephants themselves, employed natives of 
India for the purpose. 1 Maccabees vi. 37: 'And tow- 
ers of wood were upon them, strong and covered, one 
upon each beast, girt fast upon him with cunning con- 
trivances; and upon each beast were two and thirty 
valiant men, that fought upon them, beside his Indian.' 

THE TWO-SIDED MAN 

Stanza 3. Shaman, Ju-ju, or Angekok 
Minister, Mukamuk, Bonze. 

Shaman. The word is loosely applied to the priests 
of many low types of religions. In its correcter and 
more restricted sense it means a priest of the Tun- 
guses, inhabitants of the Yenesei Valley in Asiatic 
Russia. A Shaman's duty is to control good and 
evil spirits, to perform sacrifices, and deliver oracles. 
A Shaman is by no means necessarily a conscious 
fraud. Doubtless much of his magic seems to miss 
its intended effect, but probably a good half of it 
seems to succeed enough to preserve his reputation 
and his own self-esteem. 

Ju-ju. The word has wandered far from its origi- 
nal meaning. It is derived from the French joujou, 
a doll or toy, and with this meaning was applied by 

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early French navigator-explorers to the idols vener- 
ated by the negroes of the West Coast of Africa. It 
has come to mean the religion of the people who 
worship these idols. The average European who now 
uses the word supposes it to be an African word, but 
the negro who uses it firmly believes it to be English. 
Angekok. An Eskimo priest or medicine man. 
Any Eskimo who believes that when in a state of 
trance he can visit Sedna, the Queen of the Under- 
world (see 'Quiquern' in The Second Jungle Book), 
can declare himself to be an angekok. The darkness 
and intense silence of the long Arctic night tend to 
produce in the Eskimo the abnormal state of mind 
in which a man believes that he sees visions and holds 
intercourse with supernatural beings. The extent of 
credit that a self-constituted angekok can obtain 
among his fellows depends largely on the intensity of 
his own belief in his own powers. An angekok is sup- 
posed to be able to kill by a mere wish, by the glance 
of his eye, or by the terror inspired by his appearance ; 
he is able also to divine people's thoughts, to know 
the whereabouts of game, to prevent the fire-drill 
from producing fire, to visit the moon (which is be- 
lieved to be a man), and to find lost objects. He can 
see the sins of men, and the dark colour of objects 
that have come into contact with something tabooed, 
and are thus to be avoided. An angekok cannot, 
however — practical experience has probably taught 
them this — see through falling snow or fog any better 

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than an ordinary man. An angekok's chief duties 
are to heal the sick and to propitiate Sedna and ani- 
mals that, being offended by the violation of taboos 
connected with them, will not allow themselves to be 
killed. Angekoks have a special language of their own. 

Mukamuk. A medicine man or sorcerer among the 
Red Indians. Unlike the angekok, he is not self- 
appointed. He must be selected from a family in 
which priesthood is hereditary, and he must be very 
carefully educated for and initiated into his duties. 

Bonze. The European name for any member of a 
Buddhist religious order. 

LUKANNON 

Lukannon is one of the seal-rookeries on the Island 
of St. Paul in the Pribilof Group in the Bering Sea, 
an island from which nearly half the world's supply 
of sealskin is obtained. From May till August every 
year about three million seals come there for the breed- 
ing season, but only the young males (Russian hollus- 
chickie, * bachelors') are killed for their skins. The 
adult males with their cows stay on the rocky shores, 
but the young play about the sand-dunes and among 
the salt lagoons inland. When the seals arrive the 
island is covered with vegetation — grass, moss, lichen, 
etc. — but this is quickly worn away by the seals, who, 
moving about in their thousands, wear down even the 
sand hummucks. The right to kill seals on St. Paul's 
is farmed out by the United States Government. 

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(See also notes on the envoy to 'The Rhyme of the 
Three Sealers,' p. 132.) 

Stanza 6. Wheel down, wheel down to Southward — 
oh, Gooverooska go! Gooverooska is Russian for a 
sea-gull (Larus brevirostris) of the same species as the 
kittiwake. Russian is the language of the Pribilof 
Islands, because they belonged to Russia before they 
were ceded, together with Alaska, to the United 
States. 

AN ASTROLOGER'S SONG 

Stanza 1. While the Stars in their courses 
Do fight, on our side. 
Cf. Judges v. 20: 'The stars in their courses fought 
against Sisera.' 

Stanza 5. The Sign that commands 'em. The 
heavens are dominated in turn by each of the twelve 
signs of the Zodiac — the Ram, the Bull, etc. These 
constellations, according to astrologers, have a power- 
ful influence over what happens on the earth. The 
fate of a man, they believe, depends greatly upon the 
stars that are rising at the moment of his birth, and 
the relation between these stars and the signs of the 
Zodiac. 

THE BEE BOY'S SONG 

The common superstition that bees must be told 
every item of news is easy to explain. They seem to 
be overwhelmed with curiosity as they fly into one 
flower after another. As they are so valuable, and 

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apparently liable to fly away at a moment's notice, 
it is worth while to keep on good terms with them by 
telling them the news. 

Stanza 2. Where the fanners fan. Among the 
many duties of worker-bees is that of keeping the hive 
cool and ventilated by standing in the passages and 
ceaselessly moving their wings. Much bee-lore is to 
be found in the allegorical story 'The Mother Hive* 
{Actions and Reactions). 

MERROW DOWN 

There runs a road by Merrow Down 

A grassy track to-day it is. 
And a wonderful road it is! One of the oldest in 
Europe, and much older than the Roman roads that 
run straight as arrows across and across England. It 
is part of what is called the Pilgrim's Way, because 
long ago pilgrims from the west of England and from 
the west of France and Spain used to travel along it 
to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. 
But the road was there long before Becket was born, 
and even long before Canterbury was built. In fact, 
so far from the road owing its existence to Canter- 
bury, Canterbury owes its existence to the road. It 
used to be the main road between the west of England 
and the Straits of Dover, and is thus probably the 
end of an old trade route that ran from Cornwall 
across the Straits of Dover through France and 
Switzerland to Greece, Italy, Troy, Crete, Egypt, 

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and beyond. At Farnham, a few miles to the west 
of JMerrow Down, the road divides; the newer part 
of it runs to Winchester and Southampton Water — 
along that part of it the pilgrims from the west of 
Europe came to Canterbury; the older part runs 
to Stonehenge (Stonehenge is where it is because of 
the road, so you may judge how old the road is) and 
right through Devonshire and Cornwall to the tidal 
island now called St. Michael's Mount, where the 
Phoenicians made their camp when they traded with 
the ancient Britons. This older part is still called the 
Harrow Road (that is the 'hoary' or very old road). 
The road is not straight like a Roman road, but fol- 
lows wherever possible the line of the chalk downs, 
and runs just below the crest of the downs on their 
southern sides. There are several reasons for this. 
Down in the valley travellers from or to the west of 
England would have had to pass through the thick 
forests, where they could not see far and were there- 
fore liable to be attacked by the warlike tribes 
through whose territory they passed. Up near the 
top of the downs above the forest they could not be 
attacked without having time to get ready to fight. 
On the well-drained chalk downs, too, the ground 
was drier than in the clay valleys and so easier to 
walk on, and the south side of the downs along which 
the old road runs is drier than the north side be- 
cause it gets more sun. Why did not the travellers 
who made the road walk along the top of the downs ? 

3H 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

Because had they done so all the people from the 
valleys below could have seen them against the sky- 
line and could have had ample time to gather a large 
force to attack them. There are so many interesting 
things to say about this wonderful old road — such 
as why it stops short at Canterbury instead of run- 
ning on to one or other of the harbours in the Straits 
of Dover — that whole books have been written about 
it. One of the best is The Old Road, by Hilaire Belloc. 

Looking southwards from Merrow Down you see 
one of the prettiest valleys in England. You see 
Broadstonebrook and Bramley (where the beavers 
built their dams), and Shere that is now inhabited by 
artists instead of bears, because it is one of the pret- 
tiest villages in England. And on a hilltop near by 
you can see St. Martha's church, which was built for 
the pilgrims. (People think it was then called St. 
Martyr's in honour of the martyr, Thomas Becket.) 
John Bunyan is supposed to have had the whole scene 
in his mind when he wrote The Pilgrim s Progress. 

The Phoenicians carried their goods on packhorses 
because the old road was not good enough for carts. 
Their horses had bells on their necks so that they 
could easily be found in the mornings after they had 
been turned out to graze at night. The moccasins 
that Taffy wore were shoes made of soft skin. They 
fitted the foot like a glove, and so never made blisters 
on her heels. They were much better than boots, too, 
because she could walk up a steep rock much more 

3i5 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

easily in soft moccasins than in hard-soled boots. 
Red Indians still wear them and so do South African 
Boers, but Boers call them 'veldtschoen.' When 
Taffy wanted to send a message to her daddy she 
made a fire by rubbing two sticks together, then she 
put damp wood on to it so that it would make plenty 
of smoke for him to see. Then she kept on covering 
and uncovering it so as to make long and short 
smokes. Australian blacks send messages to each 
other in the same way. In the story that accom- 
panies this poem, 'How the First Letter was Written/ 
Rudyard Kipling says that Taffy is short for Taffimai 
Metallumai, and that this means ' Small-person- 
without-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked/ I 
wonder if he really knows! 

OLD MOTHER LAIDINWOOL 

Stanza i. This song is sung by Puck as, in the 
form of Tom Shoesmith, he comes to the oast-house 
in which Hobden is drying hops ('Dymchurch Flit' 
in Puck of Pook's Hill). As soon as Hobden sees his 
friend he exclaims, 'They do say hoppin '11 draw the 
very deadest, and now I belieft 'em.' The first two 
lines are a quotation from an old song. 

Stanza 3. With stockins on their hands. The 
juice of the hop stains the hands almost as effectively 
as walnut juice, and hops are prickly. The better 
class hoppers, therefore, wear old gloves or some 
other covering for the hands when at work. 

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Art none of 'em was foreigners. In the agricultural 
districts of Sussex and Kent the villagers of each little 
community speak of any kind of stranger as a 
'foreigner.' In many districts local labour suffices to 
gather the hop-harvest. In others labour is im- 
ported temporarily from the London slums. The 
local labourers consider themselves, with reason, to 
be socially superior to the imported foreigners, 
and endeavour to avoid mingling with them. In 
fields that are picked by both local and imported 
labour, the local people will take one side of the field 
and leave the other to the 'foreigners.' In 'Dym- 
church Flit ' {Puck of Pook's Hill) Puck, masquerad- 
ing as Tom Shoesmith, in order to show that he is 
a fit and proper person to be with Dan and Una, 
assures the maidservant he is no 'foreigner.' 

Stanza 4. An she moved among the babies an she 
stilled 'em when they cried. In the hop-districts 
hopping time is regarded as a profitable annual 
holiday. Many of the small trades people and me- 
chanics shut up their shops, and with their whole 
families go to work in the fields. Maidservants 
from large houses spend their 'afternoons off' in 
the field, working a little and flirting a lot. Old 
women come out of the almshouses to help their 
daughters pick, and five-year-old children work for 
a while in the intervals between picking black- 
berries and sleeping in the sun. The smallest chil- 
dren of all, who must necessarily be brought to the 

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field, as the houses are all shut up, are left in their 
perambulators in charge of some aged volunteer 
nurse. 

CHAPTER HEADINGS 

JUST-SO STORIES 
'when the cabin port-holes are dark and 

GREEN ' 

Why, then you will know (if you haven t guessed) 
You re 'fifty north and forty west! 9 

Strictly speaking, the part of the world's surface 
that is known as 50 N. and 40 W. (fifty degrees 
north of the equator and forty west of Greenwich) 
is a little more than half-way from London to New 
York on the course that the great liners take, but 
it is an old sea expression for any part of the mid- 
Atlantic that is rough and unpleasant. If you 
complained, in the hearing of a seasoned traveller, 
that the passage between Dover and Calais was not 
exactly smooth, the latter would almost certainly 
put on a superior air and say, 'You wait till you've 
been Fifty North and Forty West!' 

'THIS IS THE MOUTH-FILLING SONG OF THE RACE 
THAT WAS RUN BY A BOOMER' 

A Boomer is the same as an Old-Man-Kangaroo, 
that is the biggest kind of kangaroo. You will not 

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find Warrigaborrigarooma on the map of Australia, 
because the race between the kangaroo and the 
Yellow-Dog Dingo happened so long ago. All the 
names of Australian places are shorter now; such 
as Warragamba, Burrangong, Cumbooglecumbong, 
Goondiwindi, Ringarooma, etc. The dingo is the 
wild Australian dog. It is generally all yellow, but 
sometimes it has a white tip to its tail like a fox. 
It is the only Australian mammal except the bat 
that has not got a pocket in which to put its young 
ones. 

'china going p. and o's 

PASS PAU AMMA'S PLAYGROUND CLOSE.' 

Pau Amma is the giant king-crab that ranges from 
Singapore to Torres Straits. Learned people call 
him Tachypleus gigas moluccanus. The Malays be- 
lieve that there is a huge hole in the bottom of the 
sea, and that Pau Amma sits on the top of it. When 
he comes out for food the water pours through this 
hole into the underworld, and that makes the tide 
go down. When he goes back to it again the water 
cannot flow through the hole, and as plenty of rivers 
are all the time pouring water into the sea it fills up. 
That makes the tide rise. The hole is called Pusat 
Tasek. You can read about it in a book called 
Malay Magic, by W. W. Skeat. 

P. and O/s means Peninsula and Oriental ships 
that go from London to India, China, and Australia. 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

B. I.'s are British India boats. Some of them go past 
Pusat Tasek to China, the Philippine Islands, and 
Queensland, but some don't go near it, as they have 
to go to the Persian Gulf or East Africa instead. N. 
Y. K.'s are Nippon Yusen Kaisha; they are Japanese 
steamers running to Europe. N. D. L.'s are German 
Nord-deutscher-Lloyd boats. They run to Eastern 
Asia and Australia as well as to America. M. M.'s 
are the French Messageries Maritimes steamers. 
They go to China, Australia, and New Caledonia. 
Rubattinos are Italian steamers, running from Genoa 
to Hong-Kong. The A. T. L. (Atlantic Transport 
Line) only goes from London to New York. The 
D. O. A. is the German East African line (Deutsche- 
Ost-Afrika). Their ships go right round Africa, out- 
wards by the east coast and homewards by the west 
coast, or vice versa. The Orient liners go round the 
south of Australia, so they do not go near the Malay 
Peninsula. The Anchor boats stop short at the 
Indian ports; those of the Bibby line get no farther 
than Burma. The U. C. L. is the Union-Castle Line 
running round Africa. The Beavers go to West 
Africa. The Shaw Savill steamers go round the 
world, touching at the Cape and New Zealand, 
then home round the Horn. The White Star boats 
go to America, to the Mediterranean, to South 
Africa and Australia, but do not go near the East 
Indies. 
There is not really any such person as Mr. Lloyds. 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

Over two hundred years ago shipping merchants used 
to meet to discuss business at a coffee-house kept by 
Edward Lloyd in London, who also published a news- 
paper about shipping matters called Lloyds* News. 
The present great association of merchants and ship- 
owners called Lloyds takes its name from the coffee- 
house where it originated. 

Mangosteens are considered by many people to be 
the most delicious fruit in the world. You cut 
through a thick reddish brown rind and find inside 
a soft, very juicy, snow-white pulp that looks like a 
water-ice and tastes rather like red-currants, and a 
little bit like acid drops. You cannot taste mangos- 
teens unless you go to Ceylon or the East Indies, be- 
cause they will not grow anywhere else, and the fruit 
cannot be sent all over the world as bananas and 
oranges can, because they are too delicate. 

'there was never a queen like balkis' 

Balkis was the name of the Queen of Sheba who 
came to see Solomon because she heard how wonder- 
fully wise he was. She is said to have married Solo- 
mon and to have had a son called Menelek, who was 
the first king of Abyssinia, but you will not find that 
in the Bible. You will find stories about Solomon and 
the Queen of Sheba in the Koran, which is the Sacred 
Book of the Mohammedans. Sabaea is that part of 
Arabia that is now called Yemen, at the back of 
Aden. 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 
THE QUEEN'S MEN 

This -poem, which precedes the story 'Gloriana' (Rewards and 
Fairies), is there entitled ' The Two Cousins* 

Stanza 3. Belphcebe is a character in Spenser's 
Faerie Queen intended to portray Queen Elizabeth. 

GOW'S WATCH 

Tiercel. A name applied to the male of various 
kinds of falcon, chiefly the peregrine. 

At hack. In the state of partial liberty which a 
hawk must enjoy after it has been trained to come to 
the lure but before it is used in the field. As soon as 
the hawk begins to prey for itself it should be ' taken 
up' from hack. 

Eyass. A hawk that has been brought up from the 
nest. 

Passage hawk. A hawk captured when 'on pass- 
age/ i. e. migrating. Such a hawk is harder to train 
than an eyass, but can work more effectively. As it 
has already developed its powers of flight it need not 
be kept so long 'at hack' as must an eyass. 

Footed. Killed its prey. 

Binds to. Clings to. A glove is always worn on 
the hand that carries a hawk. 

Firings. Food. 

Make-hawk. A thoroughly trained and reliable 
hawk flown with young hawks to teach them their 
work. 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

In yarak. Keen and in good condition. 

Manned. Well trained. 

Weathered. Inured to the open air. The initial 
training of a hawk is carried on in a darkened room. 

Cozen advantage. Win an advantage by cunning. 

What's caught in Italy. In Tudor times Italy was 
regarded as a hot-bed of atheism and vice. Men of 
fashion who went there to obtain culture and brought 
home vicious habits instead were called 'Italianate' 
Englishmen. Syphilis was called 'the Italian disease.' 

A coil. Source of trouble. 

Coney-catch. Literally ' to catch rabbits ' — to poach. 

Gerb, from the French gerbe, f a sheaf.' A kind of 
firework somewhat like a Roman candle, but usually 
larger. Its sparks take the shape of a sheaf of wheat. 

SONG OF THE RED WAR BOAT 

The date assigned to this poem (683 a. d.) is two 
years after St. Wilfrid began the work of converting 
the men of Sussex to Christianity. 

Watch for a smooth. The following definition of 
'a smooth' is given in Captain Marryat's Poor Jack: 
— 'Occasionally a master-wave, as it is termed, from 
being of larger dimensions than its predecessors, pours 
its whole volume on the beach ; after which, by watch- 
ing your time, you will find that two waves will 
run into one another, and, as it were, neutralise each 
other, so that, for a few seconds, you have what they 
call "a smooth."' 

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Stanza i. 'Give way.' The 'way' of a boat is its 
motion through the water. 'Give way' therefore 
means 'get her going.' 

A Lop is a short choppy sea caused by the direct 
action of the wind, as opposed to the long heaving waves 
of a swell which follow and often precede a storm. 

Stanza 3. Meether. In working a boat out in the 
teeth of a heavy sea it is necessary to meet each wave 
squarely with the boat's bow. If a big wave catches the 
boat at an angle it will twist her ' broadside on,' i. e. par- 
allel to its course, fill her with water, and swamp her. 

Stanza 4. Thors own hammer. Thunder. 

Stanza 6. Break her back in the trough. The pres- 
sure put on a long boat in the trough of the sea — 
that is, between two great waves — is tremendous. 
Her stern is held up by the receding wave and her 
bow by the oncoming wave, but as there is nothing to 
support her amidships she is liable to sag and break. 

Stanza 7. Mead. A fermented drink that the 
Saxons made from honey. 

Two-reef sailing. Sailing with a sail the area of 
which is reduced by rolling up two reefs. In a mod- 
erate breeze one reef would be taken in; in a light 
breeze the whole sail would be used. 

A RIPPLE SONG 

' Maiden, wait,' the ripple saith, 
1 Wait awhile for I am Death. ' 
The ripple is caused by Jacala, the crocodile. ] 

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BUTTERFLIES 

This song, as printed in Traffics and Discoveries, is 
called 'Kaspar's Song in "Varda" (from the Swedish 
of Stagnelius).' Stagnelius, who died in 1823, at the 
age of thirty, has been called the Swedish Shelley. 
The poem is, however, the work of Rudyard Kipling. 
In Traffics and Discoveries the second line of the poem, 
in place of 'the children follow the butterflies/ has 
'The children follow where Psyche flies.' 

Psyche in Greek mythology represented the human 
soul. In Greek and Greco-Roman art she was repre- 
sented sometimes as a beautiful girl with a bird's or a 
butterfly's wings, sometimes simply as a butterfly. 

THE NURSING SISTER 

Stanza 1. Our little maid that hath no breasts. 
Cf. Song of Solomon viii. 8: 'We have a little sister, 
and she hath no breasts.' 

THE ONLY SON 

This poem precedes the story 'In the Rukh' {Many 
Inventions) that deals with the manhood of Mowgli, 
who, as a child, had a wolf for foster-mother. Stories 
of wolf-reared children are as old as the story of 
Romulus and Remus, but usually these have been 
regarded as mere legends. In the ninth volume of 
the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. ix., 
however, Mr. V. Ball, of the Indian Geological Survey, 

325 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

presented evidence which he had collected on the 
subject. A correspondent of Mr. Ball's furnished 
him with particulars of a man whom the natives said 
had been nourished by a wolf foster-mother. This 
man had several wolf-like characteristics. He smelt 
all food offered to him before deciding whether or not 
to eat it, and hid such food as he did not eat at the 
moment under the straw of his bedding. He grunted 
as a sign of recognition, but could not speak. He 
walked on the front portion of the foot, the heels 
being raised from the ground and the knees bent, 
'in fact, one could readily suppose that he had 
as a child progressed in a stooping position, using 
both hands and feet. The hands were bent back 
but not stiff. He kept them in this position when 
taking anything offered to him instead of clutching 
it/ 

Line 13. Tyre. Sour or curdled milk. 

MOWGLI'S SONG AGAINST PEOPLE 

Stanza 1 . And the Karela, the bitter Karela 
Shall cover it all. 
The Karela, as appears from the story which precedes 
this poem in The Second Jungle Book, is a wild vine, 
bearing a bitter gourd, that spreads rapidly and soon 
overgrows ground deserted by human beings. Jungle 
growth is so swift that a man might often pass through 
what had been a village only a year or so before and 
notice no trace of human habitation until his atten- 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

tion was arrested by the fact that the vegetation 
immediately around him was different from that 
farther away. The vegetation covering a recently 
ruined village would all be of a quick-growing kind. 



CHAPTER HEADINGS 
THE JUNGLE BOOKS 

The following words need explanation to those who 
have not read The Jungle Books: — 

Sambhur. The Indian elk. 
Jacala. The crodocile. 
Nag. The snake. 
Tabaqui. The jackal. 

'at the hole where he went in 
red-eye called to wrinkle skin.' 

Red-eye is the Indian mongoose, described in the 
story ' Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.' The mongoose is as eager 
to hunt and kill snakes as a dog is to catch rabbits. 
So seldom is the mongoose killed by the poison of 
a snake, that the Hindus believe that after fight- 
ing it goes off and eats a vegetable antidote. The 
mongoose, however, relies entirely on its wonder- 
ful agility and on the thickness of its bottle-brush 
fur. The snake cannot eject venom unless its jaws 
are closed, and it cannot make them close on the 
thick hair. 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 
THE EGG-SHELL 

The first and last stanzas of this ■poem precede the second part 
of the story ' Their Lawful Occasions' in Traffics and Discoveries. 
The second stanza does not appear there. 

Stanza I. An egg-shell 

With a little Blue Devil inside. 
A torpedo-boat and the lieutenant in charge. 

Stanza 2. The sights are just coming on. The 
sights by which the Whitehead torpedo is aimed are 
just coming into line with the object at which it is to 
be discharged. 

THE KING'S TASK 

The first eighteen lines of this poem precede the story 
t The Comprehension of Private Copper' in Traffics 
and Discoveries, and appear in chapter ii. of A School 
History of England. The remaining lines appear 
only in Songs from Books. The latter should be 
compared with ' The Islanders' and ' The Lesson' (Five 
Nations). 

Line 2. Saint Wilfrid. The first to preach Chris- 
tianity in Sussex (see note 'Sussex/ stanza 7, p. 219). 

Line 8. Andred'sWood. Andredsweald — the for- 
est land or 'Weald' of Sussex, between the North 
and South Downs. 

Line 9. The Witan. The Council. Each of the 
English kingdoms in Anglo-Saxon times had its sep- 
arate witan, which made laws, imposed taxes, con- 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

eluded treaties, and advised the king on affairs of 
state. 

Flaying. Pillage. 

Line 10. In Traffics and Discoveries the first part 
of this line runs ' Folkland, common and pannage' in 
place of ' Common, loppage and pannage.' 

Folkland. Land owned by permission (or the 
customary law) of the people, as to the ownership of 
which it was unnecessary to produce documentary 
proof. (The opposite was 'bookland,' held by royal 
privilege and attested by documents.) The owner of 
folkland could not bequeath it to any but a kinsman 
and could not sell it without the permission of his 
kinsmen. 

Common. Each Anglo-Saxon town or village pos- 
sessed an area of arable land that was the property not 
of individuals but of the community. Strips of the 
land were assigned to each householder. In the very 
early days, possibly, he took as much land as he could 
cover from end to end by throwing a hammer. Thus 
each man received as much as he had strength enough 
to cultivate. The householder enjoyed the exclusive 
use of his strip from ploughing-time to harvest, but 
as soon as his crop was gathered the land reverted 
to the community. The poorest was left waste for 
pasturage, to supply fuel, etc. : this waste land is now 
the common of the present day. 

Pannage. The right to feed swine in a wood or 
forest. 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

Loppage. The steward of a large manor, applied 
to for the meaning of this word, said that he did not 
know the meaning although the word frequently oc- 
curred in leases that he drew up. Presumably it 
means the right to lop trees, i. e. remove their super- 
fluous branches without interfering with the trunk. 

The theft and the track of kine. If stolen cattle were 
tracked by their footprints to within reasonable dis- 
tance of a village, that village was held responsible 
for the theft, but the community could clear itself if 
it could track the stolen cattle to some other village. 

Line 14. Rudely but deeply they bedded the plinth 
of the days to come. It has been said that modern 
English law is based on Saxon customs moulded by 
Norman lawyers. It forms the foundation of the law 
in England, the British overseas dominions, and the 
United States of America. 

Line 18. Our ancient headlands. Saxon fields 
were not enclosed with hedges. Their shape was 
commonly one furlong (i. e. furrow-long) in length 
and four rods in breadth. Between one field and 
the next at the head of the furrows, the space where 
the plough oxen turned was left untilled and was 
called a headland. 

The eight-ox plough. In the Anglo-Saxon com- 
munities the heavy plough in use belonged to the 
community, each householder taking his turn to use 
it and employing his own oxen for the purpose. 

Line 19. There came a king from Hamtun, by 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

Bosenham he came. The ancient kingdom of Sussex 
was invaded several times by Wessex kings, but the 
invasion here recorded is an imaginary incident 
having an allegorical reference to the danger of 
national unpreparedness for war. Possibly Britain's 
unpreparedness for the Boer War inspired it. Ham- 
tun, or Hamtune, was the Saxon name for South- 
ampton. Bosenham is the Domesday Book spelling 
of the modern Bosham, a village situated on an arm 
of Chichester harbour. 

Line 22. Cymens Ore (Cymenes Ora; sometimes 
written Cymenshore) is probably Chichester har- 
bour, where the ships of the Saxon invaders, under 
Aella and his three sons, Cymen, Wlencing, and 
Cissa, anchored in 477 a.d. 

Line 25. Beechmast. The fruit of the beech-tree 
was formerly used for human food in time of famine. 
At other times it was given to pigs. 

Beltane fires. Beltane is Celtic for May day, on 
which day bonfires were lit on hilltops, two together, 
and between these the cattle were driven. A beltane 
cake was cooked at one of the fires. It was then 
divided into pieces, one piece being blackened with 
charcoal. The pieces of cake were then apportioned 
by lot to those present. Whoever received the 
blackened piece was pelted with egg-shells, and for 
some weeks afterwards was regarded as dead. Prob- 
ably the custom was a relic of the sacrifice of both 
oxen and human beings. It survived in the north- 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

east of Scotland until the latter part of the eighteenth 
century. 

Line 26. The beeves were salted thrice. Until the 
introduction, at a comparatively recent date, of 
winter roots and herbs, English farmers knew no 
method of fattening their stock in winter. Oxen 
were consequently killed in autumn, when they were 
at their fattest, the beef was salted, and for the next 
six months even the wealthiest had little fresh meat. 

POSEIDON'S LAW 

In Greek mythology Poseidon was god of the sea; 
his brothers Zeus and Pluto reigning over earth and 
the underworld. 

Stanza 1. When the robust and Brass-bound Man 
commissioned first for sea. Cf. Horace, Od., i. 3: 

'Illi robur et aes triplex 
Circa pectus erat qui fragilem truci 
Commisit pel ago ratem 
Primus.' 

(Surely oak and threefold brass surrounded his heart who 
first trusted a frail vessel to the wild sea.) 

Stanza 3. Hadria. The Adriatic Sea. 

Stanza 5. A dromond was a mediaeval warship of 
a type first used by the Saracens. When Richard 1. 
was on his way to Palestine his ship was attacked by 
a huge dromond — 'a marvellous ship, a ship than 
which, except Noah's ark, none greater was ever read 

332 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

of.' This vessel was three masted, and carried 
fifteen hundred men on board. In Hakluyt's Li- 
bellus de politia conservativa maris, or, The Pollicy of 
keeping the Sea, reference is made to Henry the 
Fifth's 'great Dromons, which passed other great 
shippes of all the commons.' 

A catafract was a Greek galley provided with 
bulwarks to protect the rowers; an 'afract' was a 
galley in which the upper tier of rowers was not so 
protected. A bireme was a galley that had two tiers 
of rowers, one above the other. 

Stanza 6. In each set of three rowers in a trireme's 
crew the thranite sat on the highest, and the thalamite 
on the lowest, of the three oar-benches. 

Stanza 7. Punt was the name of a land from 
which the ships of the ancient Egyptians brought in- 
cense, gold, and ivory. It is supposed to be identical 
with what is now called Somaliland. 

Phormio s Fleet. Phormio was an Athenian ad- 
miral of the fifth century b.c. In the Peloponnesian 
War he defeated, with twenty ships, the Corinthian 
fleet of forty-seven sail. A fleet of seventy-seven 
sail was then sent against him, and in the action 
that followed, though nine of his ships went aground, 
he defeated the enemy and won complete control of 
the Greek seas. 

Javan was a land with which the sailors of ancient 
Tyre traded for slaves and other commodities. Cf. 
Ezekiel xxvii. 13 and 19: 'Javan, Tubal, and Me- 

333 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

shech, they were thy merchants: they traded the 
persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market. 
. . . Dan also and Javan going to and fro occu- 
pied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, 
were in thy market.' By some authorities Javan is 
supposed to have been a vague name for the farthest 
parts of the Mediterranean known in the time of 
Ezekiel, and to have included Carthage and Tarshish. 
Others believe it to have been all lands colonised 
by the Ionian Greeks, and to have included Tarshish, 
Cyprus, and Rhodes. 

Gadire. The modern Cadiz. 

Falernian or smoked Massilian juice. In ancient 
times the 'Ager Falernus' in Campania produced 
the best wine in all Italy. The Greeks introduced 
the vine into their colony of Massilia (the modern 
Marseilles), and by the first century a.d. Massilian 
wine competed with Italian wine in the Italian 
market. 

A TRUTHFUL SONG 

Stanza 9. Sheet. A rope with which the corner 
of a sail is held in position. 

Lift. A rope descending from the masthead to the 
end of the yard. 

Brace. A rope extending from the end of the yard 
to a belaying pin on the ship's side by means of 
which the position of the yard with reference to the 
wind is adjusted. 

334 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

Lead. Trend or direction. So many ropes de- 
scend from a ship's rigging and are made fast to its 
bulwarks that it is difficult for the eye to follow up- 
wards the 'lead' of any one in order to see to what it 
is attached aloft. As it is of prime importance for a 
seaman to understand the work performed by each 
rope (he must often find them by touch on pitch 
dark nights), the first thing he must learn on going 
to sea is the 'lead' of each individual rope. 

Stanza n. Or it might be Ham {though his skin 
was dark). Old-fashioned ethnologists believed all 
the negro races of the world to be descended from 
Ham. 

Stanza 12. Your wheel is new. No detail of a 
ship has altered more than the steering-gear. The 
tiller displaced the steering-oar in the fourteenth 
century. The tiller grew with the growth of ships 
until in the sixteenth century it had to be controlled 
by elaborate block-and-tackle gear. The modern 
wheel replaced the tiller comparatively recently. 

Hooker. A natural term of endearment for a 
ship. 

A SMUGGLER'S SONG 

The worthy parsons who allowed their churches to 
be used as stores for smuggled goods, and received 
in acknowledgment of their complacency many pres- 
ents of brandy, lace, or tobacco, were no doubt 
inspired by excellent motives. Adam Smith, the 

335 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

eighteenth-century economist, described a smuggler 
as 'a person who, though no doubt highly blameable 
for violating the laws of his country, is frequently 
incapable of violating those of natural justice, and 
would have been in every respect an excellent citizen 
had not the laws of his country made that a crime 
which nature never meant to be so.' 

KING HENRY VII. AND THE 
SHIPWRIGHTS 

Stanza i. At Hamuli on the Hoke, better known 
as Hamble-le-rice, was the principal roadstead at 
which royal ships were laid up from the time of 
Henry v. till towards the close of the reign of Henry 
vii. The Hamble is an estuary branching out of 
Southampton Water. Though the county of Hamp- 
shire is called 'Hampshire' on maps, it is still called 
the 'County of Southampton' in many documents. 

Stanza 4. Strakes. A strake is one breadth of 
planks in a ship's side forming a continuous strip 
from stem to stern. 

Stanza 6. Robert Brigandyne was appointed Clerk 
of the Ships by Henry vii. He was ' a yeoman of the 
crown,' i. e. in the personal service of the king, and 
received 'twelve pence a day and sixpence a day for 
a clerk under him/ He superintended the construc- 
tion of England's first dry dock. 

Stanza 8. Gramercy. Thank you much (French, 
grand merci). 

336 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

Pricking. Riding, spurring. 

Stanza n. The navy of Henry vn., which in- 
cluded the ships here mentioned, numbered only 
twelve or thirteen vessels in all. The Mary of the 
Tower was a Spanish carrack bought by Edward iv. 
for £100. The Grace Dieu (Henri Grace a Dieu) was 
built in the same reign. The Sweepstakes was the 
'King's rowbarge.' She carried eighty oars, but 
had three masts as well. She was built by Henry 
vn., as was also the Mary Fortune, also a three-masted 
vessel equipped with sixty oars. These last two cost 
together £231 to build. The Sovereign was a three- 
masted vessel, built in 1447 and rebuilt in 1509. In 
1525 her repair was urged on the ground that her 
lines were 'so marvellously goodly that great pity 
it were she should die/ It seems, however, that she 
was broken up. 

THE WET LITANY 

Stanza 2. When the wash along the side 
Sounds, a sudden, magnified. 
When a ship suddenly slows down owing to fog or for 
other reasons, the lessening of the noise from the 
engines emphasises the sound of the water washing 
along her sides. 

The intolerable blast. During a fog a steamer's 
siren is blown at frequent intervals. 

Stanza 3 . The fog-buoys squattering flight. When 
warships steam in 'line ahead formation* in thick 

337 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

weather, each tows a fog-buoy astern at a distance ol 
200 yards or less. 

When the lettered doorways close. Battleships are 
built in water-tight compartments, the doors between 
which are closed when there is any danger of a colli- 
sion. The doors are indicated by letters. 

Stanza 4. Lessened count. The leadsman who is 
standing in the chains cries the depth of water each 
time he takes a sounding. If he reports less depth 
each minute, the ship is obviously in danger of run- 
ning aground. 

Stanza 5. Our next ahead. When warships dur- 
ing manoeuvres steam in line one behind another, a 
seaman refers to the ship immediately ahead of his 
own as the 'next ahead.' The minimum distance 
that should be preserved between ships steaming in 
the 'line ahead' formation is 800 yards. 

THE BALLAD OF MINEPIT SHAW 

Stanza 1. The Pelhams are an old Sussex family. 
They came into the county in the reign of Edward in. 
John Pelham was Constable of Pevensey Castle under 
Richard 11. Sir Thomas Pelham was one of the 
Knights for Sussex in Elizabeth's Parliament. Thomas 
Pelham was created Earl of Chichester in 1501. 

Stanza 5. The Folk of the Hill. Fairies should 
never be spoken of as such by mortals lest they should 
be offended. They should be referred to by some 
such name as the 'People of the Hills' or 'The Little 

338 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

People/ Obviously a fairy speaking of his own people 
will also use one of these pseudonyms. In the story 
'Weland's Sword' {Puck of Pook's Hill), Puck is will- 
ing to sing the song ' Farewell, Rewards and Fairies,' 
except the first line, as that contains the word to which 
he objects. 

Stanza 8. The fairies could not help the poachers 
while they had iron in their hands (see note, 'Cold 
Iron,' p. 282). 

Stanza 16. Pharisee is the Sussex word for fairy. 
The colloquial plural for fairy — fairieses — was proba- 
bly well rooted in the dialect long before the transla- 
tion of the Bible, and its subsequent use in church 
made Sussex men familiar with the word Pharisee. It 
is said that some old Sussex people still believe that 
the Pharisees mentioned in the Gospels are the 'Little 
People.' 

HERIOT'S FORD 

Stanza 1. Hirples. Runs with a limp. 

Stanza 3. 'Oh, who will stay the suns descent?' 
King Joshua he is dead, my lord. 
'Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the 
Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children 
of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand 
thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley 
of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon 
stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon 
their enemies' (Joshua x. 12, 13). 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

FRANKIE'S TRADE 

Mr. W. B. Whall, Master Mariner, in his Preface 
to Sea-songs, Ships and Shanties, regrets that it was 
not Rudyard Kipling's destiny to go to sea, as he would 
have made a splendid chantey-man. This song is on 
the true chantey model. The refrain ' A-hay O! To 
me OP in this or in very similar form is to be found 
in many chanties. 

Stanza i. It is almost certain that from infancy 
until he went to sea Francis Drake lived on a con- 
demned warship moored in Gillingham Reach just 
below Chatham. Thus from childhood he must have 
learned to notice movements of tides and currents 
among sandbanks and tortuous channels, and have 
been familiar with every phase of wind and calm. As 
soon as he was old enough Edmund Drake 'by reason 
of his poverty put his son to the master of a bark, 
which he used to cruise along the shore and sometimes 
to carry merchandise into Zeeland and France' ! The 
master of the barque died and left it by will to Drake, 
who thus commanded his own ship before he was 
eighteen. 

Stanza 5. / made him pull and I made him haul. 
On his voyage round the world Drake was troubled 
with 'such controversy between the sailors and the 
gentlemen and such stomaching between the gentle- 
men and sailors that it doth even make me mad to 
hear of it.' He summoned all his crews together and 

340 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

told them plainly, 'I must have the gentleman to haul 
and draw with the mariner and the mariner with the 
gentleman.' 

Stand his trick. Take his turn at steering. 

Stanza 7. A five-knot tide . A tide running at the 
rate of five knots an hour — roughly five miles an hour. 

THORKILD'S SONG 

Stanza 1. Stavanger is one of the oldest of Nor- 
wegian seaports, founded in the eighth or ninth cen- 
tury. 

Stanza 8. A three-reef gale. A wind strong 
enough to make it necessary to reduce the area of the 
mainsail by taking in three reefs. 

ANGUTIVAUN TAINA 

Those who wish to compare this 'Song of the Re- 
turning Hunter' with the original will find both words 
and music, together with much wonderfully interest- 
ing matter concerning the people of Tununirmiut, in 
a paper by Dr. Franz Boas entitled 'The Central 
Eskimo,' published in the Sixth Annual Report of the 
American Bureau of Ethnology. 

THE SONG OF THE MEN'S SIDE 

In Rewards and Fairies this song follows a tale 
('The Knife and the Naked Chalk') in which a Neo- 
lithic flint-worker of Cissbury Ring on the South 
Downs sacrifices an eye in order to obtain a knife 

34i 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

from a neighbouring tribe, the ' Children of the Night/ 
whose home was in the Weald. With this knife he 
drives off the Beast (i. e. the wolf) that preyed upon 
the flint-workers' flocks. On account of this service 
he is believed to be 'the son of Tyr, the God who put 
his right hand in a Beast's mouth.' 

Stanza I. The Beast. The Wolf. In stanza 3 he 
is referred to as Shepherd of the Twilight, Feet in the 
Night, Dog without a Master, and Devil in the Dusk. 
In many parts of the world, especially in savage coun- 
tries, it is believed that if a dangerous animal is men- 
tioned by its proper name it will revenge itself on whom- 
ever so mentions it. In southern India, for instance, 
the tiger is called 'the dog' or 'the jackal,' and Ben- 
gali women call a snake 'the creeping thing.' The 
Bechuanas call the lion 'the boy with the beard.' 
The Lapps call the bear 'the old man with the coat of 
skin,' and at the present day wolves are not called by 
their proper name in some parts of Germany, though 
this restriction only applies to the winter, when wolves 
are most dangerous. It is fairly certain, therefore, 
that our primitive ancestors in Britain never called 
the wolf by his proper name. 

Flint-workers. The inhabitants of the South Downs, 
in the later Stone Age, were a pastoral tribe. This 
we know from the cattle tracks that lead in and out 
of their encampments. The flint quarries and frag- 
ments of flint weapons and tools that have been found 
in these encampments show them also to have been 

342 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

expert flint-workers (see note to ' Puck's Song/ stan- 
zas 9 and 10, p. 275, and to 'Sussex/ stanza 6, p. 217). 

The Buyer of the Blade. By reason of his great 
sacrifice the Buyer of the Blade had become divine. 
He might no longer therefore be spoken of or ad- 
dressed by his proper name, which had become ' taboo' 
or sacred. Among Semitic peoples none but a few 
priests know the true name of God. Such words as 
Jehovah and Allah are pseudonyms. 

Room for his shadow on the grass. Primitive sav- 
ages regard a man's shadow as his visible soul or spirit. 
The Baganda, the Tolindos of Celebes, the Ottawa 
Indians, and many others believe that it is possible 
to injure a man by striking a blow at his shadow. 
Hence it would be an act of sacrilege to stand on the 
shadow of a divine man such as the Buyer of the 
Blade. 

The great god Tyr. Tyr was the Scandinavian god 
of battle, after whom Tuesday is named. His fight 
with a wolf forms the design of an ornamental sign- 
post erected by King George v. on one of his estates. 
As the exploits of a hero are embellished by tradition 
among primitive people, the hero himself comes to be 
regarded as divine. 

Stanza 2. The Children of the Night. The in- 
habitants of the forest to the north of the Downs. 

The barrows of the dead. Neolithic men buried 
their dead (sometimes after cremation) in long cham- 
bers lined with immense stones and covered with 

343 



SONGS FROM BOOKS 

earth. The remains of these are now called in England 
'barrows.' (See note on 'Sussex,' stanza 4, p. 217.) 

The Women s side. In many primitive communi- 
ties the division between men and women is sharper 
than among civilised people. In some cases, as 
among the Zulus, the women speak a language that 
differs materially from that spoken by men. In some 
communities all the unmarried men in a community 
live together in one large hut and all the unmarried 
women in another. Among some Australian tribes 
the 'gunyahs' or leaf-huts of the married people are 
in the centre of the camp, those of bachelors and 
widowers on one side, and those of spinsters and 
widows on the other. 

Stanza 3. Hai, Tyr, aie! No traces of the lan- 
guage of British Neolithic man have been preserved 
(the Celtic invasion of Britain did not begin till after 
the Stone Age), but as aie is a sound of woe all the 
world over, we may conjecture that 'Hai, Tyr, aie!' 
means 'O Tyr, help us!' 

DARZEE'S CHAUNT 

A darzee is an Indian tailor. In the story 'Rikki- 
tikki-tavi,' which accompanies this poem in The Jun- 
gle Book, it is applied to the Indian tailor-bird, so- 
called because it makes its nest by 'pulling two big 
leaves together and stitching them up the edges with 
fibres, filling the hollow with cotton and downy fluff.' 
The song is in honour of the mongoose, called Rikki- 

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SONGS FROM BOOKS 

tikki-tavi from his battle-cry, who killed Nag, the 
cobra that had eaten one of Darzee's nestlings. 

THE PRAYER 

My brother kneels, so saith Kabir, 

To stone and brass in heathen-wise. 
Kabir was a religious reformer of northern India in 
the fifteenth century (see note, 'A Song of Kabir,' 
p. 282). 



345 



A School History of England 

THE ROMAN CENTURION 

Stanza i. Legate. This was the title of the 
senior subordinate officer of the governor of a Roman 
colony. 

Cohort. A tenth part of a Roman legion. It 
numbered between three hundred and six hundred 
soldiers. 

Portus Itius was the name given by Julius Caesar 
to the French port from which he made his second 
invasion of Britain. Historians do not know exactly 
where it was, but are agreed that it was near Cape 
Grisnez, to the north of Boulogne. 

Stanza 2. Fectis, the Roman name for the Isle of 
Wight. The Wall was the wall built across Britain 
from the Tyne to the Solway Firth. An older wall, 
built by Antoninus Pius from the Forth to the Clyde, 
had been abandoned before the Romans began to 
evacuate Britain. 

Stanza 5. Rhodanus. The Rhone. 

Nemausus. Nimes, in the south of France, where 
are still to be seen remains of an amphitheatre once 
capable of holding 24,000 people, temples, baths, 
forts, and other Roman buildings. 

346 



A SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND 

Arelate. Aries, the principal seat of the Emperor 
Constantine. 

Euroclydon. The north-east wind, from Greek 
euros, east wind, and kludon, wave. 

Stanza 6. The old Aurelian Road ran along the 
shore of the Tyrrhenian Sea from Genoa to Rome. 

THE PIRATES IN ENGLAND 

Stanza 6. The shield-hung hull. The Viking ships 
were manned by men who rowed at sea and fought 
ashore. Each man hung his shield over the ship's 
side beside his seat on the rowing bench. There it 
was ready to his hand but out of his way — there 
was little room on the crowded deck of a Viking ship 
— and also served the purpose of sheltering him 
during a sea-fight. 

Stanza 7. The painted eyes. The stems of the 
Viking ships carried elaborately carved figureheads 
on long necks. Like Chinese ships of modern times, 
the ships had painted eyes on their bows so that they 
should see their course. 

Stanza 8. Count of the Saxon Shore. A noble- 
man of high rank appointed under the English kings 
to guard the south-east coasts, which were more 
liable to attack than other coasts of England. 

THE SAXON FOUNDATIONS OF ENGLAND 

(See notes on lines 1 to 18, 'The King's Task,' 
p. 328.) 

347 



A SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND 

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR'S WORK 

Stanza 3. It shall have one speech and law. Al- 
though William brought England under one law, 
local custom was so strong that in parts local cus- 
toms having the force of laws differed from the law 
of the land until quite recent times. Thus the tin- 
miners of Cornwall were exempt from all jurisdiction 
other than that of their own Parliament, the Stan- 
naries, except in cases affecting land, life, and limb, 
until the middle of the eighteenth century. The 
law of 'gavelkind,' which affects the tenure of land, 
is still in force in Kent. 

NORMAN AND SAXON 

Stanza 3 . You can horsewhip your Gascony archers, 
or torture your Picardy spears. At the time imme- 
diately following the Norman conquest of England, 
portions of France were so often conquered and 
reconquered in the wars between rival princes, that 
men such as the Gascons and Picards scarcely knew, 
and did not care at all, who was their lawful sovereign. 
One ruler after another hired them to fight, with the 
result that they formed themselves into bands called 
'Free Companies,' ready to fight for any one, their 
lawful king or any one else who chose to pay them. 

Thane. An Anglo-Saxon title for a man who was 
below a nobleman but above a small landowner. If 
a churl throve so that he became owner of at least 

348 



A SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND 

'five hides of land, church and kitchen, bell-house and 
burhgate-seal,' he was entitled to rank as a thane. 
So also was a merchant who 'fared thrice over the 
wide sea by his own means.' 

Stanza 4. Clerk. In Norman and Plantagenet 
times a clerk was any one who had taken religious 
orders. Few but the clergy were sufficiently well 
educated to read and write, and consequently these 
were also lawyers, record-keepers, etc. In fact any 
man who could prove that he could read was assumed 
to be in orders, and could not therefore be sentenced 
to death by a layman. The name clerk thus became 
associated with priests, and is still preserved in the 
formal title of a parson — ' Clerk in Holy Orders/ 

Stanza 5. Dont hang them or cut off their fingers. 
The purpose of cutting off a man's fingers was to 
prevent him from ever being able to use a bow 
again. 

THE REEDS OF RUNNYMEDE 

Stanza 2. You musnt sell, delay, deny, 
A freeman s right or liberty. 
This is a paraphrase of the fortieth of the sixty-three 
chapters of Magna Carta. Its brevity in comparison 
with most of the other chapters is impressive. 'To 
no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay 
right or justice.' It is noteworthy that Magna 
Carta concerned itself only with freemen. The 
villein and the serf owed their Charter of Liberty, 

349 



A SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND 

years afterwards, not to any human ordinance but 
to the Black Death, which killed so many labourers 
that those who survived could demand their own 
price for their services. 

Stanza 3. Right Divine. The theory that a king 
is responsible to God alone for his actions, and that 
his authority is by divine ordinance hereditary in a 
certain order of succession. 

Stanza 4. Except by lawful judgment found 
And passed upon him by his peers. 
In John's time 'peers' did not mean lords or barons 
but equals, and still has this meaning in the phrase 
'judgment by his peers' (pares). The tenants-in- 
chief of the crown were peers of each other whether 
they held one manor or a hundred; the tenants of a 
manor were peers of their fellow-tenants. 

WITH DRAKE IN THE TROPICS 

Stanza 1. Our Admiral leads us on. In Drake's 
day every fleet, even if it consisted of only two or 
three ships, sailed under the directions of an admiral. 
At night lanterns were lighted on the poop of the 
admiral's ship and the other ships which did not 
carry poop-lanterns had to keep these in sight. 

The silent deep ablaze 
With fires. 

Under certain atmospheric conditions myriads of 
phosphorous sparks appear at night wherever the 

3So 



A SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND 

sea is disturbed, such as in the wake of a ship or a 
porpoise. 

Stanza 2. Now the rank moon commands the sky. 
There is a very prevalent belief that moonlight has a 
bad effect on those who sleep exposed to it. Many 
Australian stockmen, for instance, when sleeping out 
in the bush without tents, will bind a handkerchief 
over their eyes on moonlight nights, for they believe 
that the moonlight can cause a disease of the eyes 
locally called sandy-blight. They believe, too, that 
a man will in his sleep fix his eyes on the moon and 
keep on staring at it, moving his head as the moon 
moves across the sky. This much seems certain, that 
freshly-caught fish exposed to moonlight will become 
poisonous. 

Stanza 3. How long the time 'twixt bell and bell. 
Time is marked at sea by the ringing of bells — one 
for each half hour. Thus half an hour after midnight 
one bell is rung. Two are rung at one o'clock. And 
so on till four o'clock, when eight bells are rung and 
the morning watch is set. Half an hour later one 
bell is rung again. 

Stanza 5. The Line. The equator. 

BEFORE EDGEHILL FIGHT 

Stanza 2. In the heart of a sleepy Midland shire. 
The first battle of the Great Rebellion was fought at 
Edgehill in Warwickshire, on the watershed between 
the Thames and Severn valleys. 

35i 



A SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND 

THE DUTCH IN THE MEDWAY 

Stanza 5. For, now De Ruyters topsails 

Off naked Chatham show. 
In 1667 the Dutch fleet under De Ruyter sailed into 
the Medway as far as Chatham and burned the de- 
fenceless English fleet. This was perhaps the greatest 
blow that the British Navy's prestige has ever suffered. 

'BROWN BESS' 

Brown Bess was the name given in the British 
army to the flint-lock musket with which the infantry 
were armed in the eighteenth century. 

Stanza 3. When ruffles were turned into stiff 
leather stocks 
And people wore pigtails instead of 
perukes. 
This change began to take place about the middle of 
the eighteenth century. Stiff stocks and pigtails 
lasted well into the nineteenth century. In fact, the 
ribbon that decorated the pigtail still survives in the 
uniform of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. It is now, 
however, sewn on to the tunic, since it cannot be 
fastened to the non-existent pigtail. 

AFTER THE WAR 

Stanza 1. The snow lies thick on Valley Forge. 
Valley Forge is a small village in Chester County, 
Pennsylvania. On the 19th of December, 1777, after 

352 



A SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND 

the battles of Brandywine and Germantown and the 
evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, Washing- 
ton's army, numbering about ten thousand men, went 
into camp there. Commissariat arrangements were 
so badly managed that by the ist of February nearly 
four thousand men were unfit for duty owing to ill- 
nesses caused by lack of proper food and clothing. 

Stanza 7. Fall as a term for autumn used to be 
in common use in England, though, like many archaic 
English words, it now survives only in America. It is, 
of course, an abbreviation for ' the fall of the leaf.' 

THE BELLS AND THE QUEEN 

Stanza 2. Gloriana was a name given by her 
courtiers to Queen Elizabeth. It was originated by 
the poet Spenser, who allegorically portrayed his 
sovereign lady in the Faerie Queen under this name. 

THE SECRET OF THE MACHINES 

Stanza 2. You shall see and hear your crackling 
question hurled 
Across the arch of heaven while you 
wait. 
When the apparatus of a wireless telegraph is at work 
it gives out a crackling noise, and at night sparks can 
be seen running up and down the stays of the mast 
which supports the 'antenna' or 'air-wire/ 



353 



Other Poems 

The following notes are on poems from Mr. Rud- 
yard Kipling's prose works that do not appear in 

Songs from Books: 

CHAPTER HEADING 
PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS 

CONSEQUENCES 

Rosicrucian subtleties 
In the Orient had rise. 

Early in the seventeenth century the ' Brethren of the 
Rosie Crosse' professed a knowledge of mystic and 
occult science, in expounding which they used the 
technical terms of alchemy and other sciences, to 
which terms they applied hidden meanings. It was 
claimed that one of the Rosicrucian 'brothers' had, 
when on pilgrimage, discovered the secret wisdom of 
the East. 

Seek ye Bombast Paracelsus. Theophrastus Bom- 
bast was a famous German physician of the sixteenth 
century, who adopted the epithet ' Paracelsus' to indi- 
cate that he was superior to Celsus, his remote prede- 
cessor. Like Tarrion in the story which accompanies 

354 



OTHER POEMS 

this poem, Paracelsus used unworthy means to gain 
his ends. He knew a great deal — he introduced the 
use of mercury and laudanum — but pretended to 
a knowledge of much more, such as the elixir of 
life. Robert Browning has made him the subject of a 
poem. 

Flood the Seeker. Flood or Fludd (Robertus de 
Fluctibus), 1 574-1637, an English Rosicrucian, was 
a devout student of Paracelsus. He was a scholar of 
St. John's, Oxford, and a Fellow of the College of 
Physicians. 

The Dominant that runs is the female influence. 

Luna at her apogee. The moon when at her greatest V 
distance from earth. 

HEADING TO CHAPTER VI 
THE NAULAHKA 

IN THE STATE OF KOT-KUMHARSEN, WHERE THE WILD 
DACOITS ABOUND 

Thakurs. Rajput nobles. 

Bunnia. A corn and seed merchant. 

Bunjara. A carrier who travels up and down the 
country driving long trains of pack-bullocks laden 
with goods. 

Sahib Bahadur. The word Sahib is a term of re- 
spect applied in India to natives of rank — e. g. Nawab 
Sahib, Rajah Sahib — and to Europeans in general. 

355 



OTHER POEMS 

Bahadur (brave), another title of respect, is sometimes 
added. 

Tonga. A two-wheeled car used for travelling in 
parts of India beyond the reach of railways. It is 
drawn by two ponies harnessed abreast to the pole 
with a curricle-bar. Cf. 'As the Bell Clinks ' {Depart- 
mental Ditties). The clack and click of the tonga-bar 
is a characteristic sound of Indian travel. 

Machan. A platform, built in the branches of a 
tree, from which to shoot driven game. 

HEADING TO CHAPTER XVIII 
BEAST AND MAN IN INDIA 

THE SEVEN NIGHTS OF CREATION 

Hassan! Saving Allah, there is none 
More strong than Eblis. 

It is written in the Koran that when God created 
Adam, He commanded all the angels to worship 
him. Eblis refused, and for his disobedience was 
turned out of Paradise and became the ruler of all evil 
spirits. 

The sword-wide bridge. According to Mohamme- 
dan belief the soul after death has to cross a bridge, 
as narrow as the edge of a sword, that connects 
earth and Paradise. Should the soul be overbur- 
dened with the weight of sins it will fall into the 
abyss below. 

356 



OTHER POEMS 

HEADING TO CHAPTER III 

KIM 

YEA, VOICE OF EVERY SOUL THAT CLUNG 
TO LIFE THAT STROVE FROM RUNG TO RUNG, 
WHEN DEVADATTA 's RULE WAS YOUNG 
THE WARM WIND BRINGS KAMAKURA. 

This is apparently a supplementary stanza to the 
poem ' Buddha at Kamakura.' It is the Buddhist 
belief that the souls of all living creatures are born 
again and again, it may be as a beast at one time, as 
an insect at another, as a nat (spirit) at another, as a 
man at another. Merit is rewarded by rebirth in a 
higher form of life (wickedness punished by rebirth in 
a lower form) until Nirvana is attained (see note, 
' Buddha at Kamakura,' stanza i, p. 224). Devadatta 
was the uncle of Gautama Buddha, though younger 
than he. He became one of Gautama's disciples, and 
later endeavoured to displace the Teacher as head of the 
order which he had founded. Failing in his purpose, 
Devadatta, after making several attempts to murder 
Gautama, founded a rival order. According to a com- 
mentary on the Jataka (see note, ' Buddha at Kama- 
kura,' stanza 7, p. 226), the earth swallowed up Deva- 
datta when on his way to ask pardon of the Buddha, 
though a later authority says that although he avowed 
his intention of asking Gautama's pardon, he had con- 
cealed poison in his nail with which to murder him. 

357 



OTHER POEMS 

THE RUNNERS 
TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES 

In the story 'A Sahib's War,' which accompanies 
this poem, the Sikh soldier who accompanied his 
English officer to the South African War says, 'The 
Sahib knows how we of Hind hear all that passes over 
the earth? There was not a gun cocked in Yunas- 
bagh' (Johannesburg) 'that the echo did not come 
into Hind in a month/ 

Stanza 2. The well-wheels. In the Punjab crops 
are irrigated with water drawn from wells by means 
of wheels worked by bullocks. 

Stanza 4. Under the shadow of the border-peels. 
A peel is a watch-tower. The Zuka Khel Afridis have 
sixty such towers, 'two-storied, built of stone, and 
entered by a ladder from the upper story' (see 'The 
Lost Legion* in Many Inventions). According to the 
Sikh officer in 'A Sahib's War,' it was rumours that 
'the Sahibs of Yunasbagh lay in bondage to the Boer- 
log' which led to the revolt of the Afridis and the 
subsequent war in the Tirah. 

THE RUNES ON WELAND'S SWORD 

PUCK OF POOR'S HILL 

Runes are characters in the earliest alphabet used 
by the Gothic tribes of northern Europe. Modern 
scholars have gradually pieced the alphabet together 

358 



OTHER POEMS 

from engravings on Norse monuments, bracelets, oar- 
blades, etc. The most valuable contribution made 
to the knowledge of the subject was obtained from a 
knife found in the Thames. Though some Runic 
characters were used in the English alphabet as late 
as the fifteenth century, most of them were obsolete 
by the tenth. When our forefathers of that day saw 
Runic characters engraved on anything they found 
they naturally thought, as they could not read them, 
that the runes were 'magic/ 

This poem is in the form in which Old English 
poetry was commonly written. Rhymes were very 
seldom used, but rhythm was attained by emphasiz- 
ing syllables. Usually there were four stressed sylla- 
bles in each long line or two in each half-line or short 
line. Alliteration also was used — the same letter or 
sound being repeated several times. Note the repe- 
tition of M in the lines. 

As Mith Makes Me 
To betray My Man 
In My first fight; 

and of G in the lines, 

It is not Given 
For Goods or Gear. 

Weland was the Vulcan of our Saxon forefathers. 
Near the White Horse in Berkshire there is a cromlech 
near which Weland or Wayland Smith is said to have 
lived. He worked for those who paid him, but never 

359 



OTHER POEMS 

allowed himself to be seen. If any one wanted a tool 
mended he laid it, together with a coin, on the crom- 
lech and went away. When he came back the tool 
was mended but the coin was gone. This legend 
suggests that what anthropologists call the ' Silent 
Trade' was once practised in England. Travellers in 
Africa from the days of Herodotus down to modern 
times have occasionally found traces of a commerce 
between two people who never saw each other. One 
man having something to sell would place it in a 
conspicuous position and go away. When he came 
back he found gold-dust or something of value by the 
side of it. If he was content with the bargain he took 
the gold-dust and left the article which he had offered 
for sale. In England in Neolithic times there must 
have been trade of some sort between the flint-workers 
of Cissbury (see note on Flint-workers, 'Song of the 
Men's Side,' p. 342) and neighbouring tribes, and 
later between the iron-workers of the Weald and their 
neighbours. Is it not probable that at the very be- 
ginning of this trade the tribes were more or less con- 
stantly at war with each other, and that individuals 
who wanted to trade adopted the 'silent' method 
because they feared treachery? In 'The Knife and 
the Naked Chalk' {Rewards and Fairies) the flint- 
worker arranges with iron-workers that his people 
should bring meat, milk, and wool, and lay them in 
the short grass near the trees, if the iron-workers 
would leave knives for the flint-workers to take away. 

360 



OTHER POEMS 

Such a trade, if it existed, may well have given rise 
to the legend of the divine smith who would mend 
a tool for payment but would never let himself be 
seen. 

PHILADELPHIA 
REWARDS AND FAIRIES 

Stanza i. Philadelphia in the last decade of 
the eighteenth century was the most important 
city in America and the seat of the Federal Govern- 
ment. 

Talleyrand, who had been acting as a self-appointed 
ambassador to Great Britain, was expelled from Brit- 
ish soil after the execution of Louis xvi. He went 
to the United States, where he spent thirty months 
before he found it safe to return to France. 

Count Zinnendorf, a bishop of the Moravian Church, 
paid a missionary visit to America in 1741-1742. His 
principal work was the founding of the borough of 
Bethlehem, Pa., fifty-five miles from Philadelphia. 
The Moravians as a community were famous at this 
time for the earnestness of their work among the Red 
Indians and the excellence of the inns they kept. In 
proportion to their small numbers the Moravians at 
the present day support a larger number of mission- 
airies than does any other community. 

Stanza 2. The character of Toby Hirte, in the (**' v 
story 'Brother Square-Toes,' is a character based on „ c x«r*/M- 

361 *?%? 



OTHER POEMS 

that of Dr. Benjamin Rush, who did splendid work in 
Philadelphia during the terrible fever epidemic of 
1793, in spite of the fact that his colleagues, who did 
not approve of his methods of treating the disease, 
relentlessly persecuted him. 



ALPHABETICAL LIST OF POEMS 
ANNOTATED 



After the War, . . 
American, An, . 
Anchor Song, 
Angutivaun Taina, 
Army Headquarters, 
As the Bell clinks, 
Astrologer's Song, An, 
'At the hole where he went 



in,' 



' Back to the Army again, ' 
Ballad of Boh da Thone, 

The, 

Ballad of East and West, 

The, . . . 
Ballad of Fisher's Boarding- 
house, The, 
Ballad of Minepit Shaw, 

The, 

Ballad of the 'Bolivar,' 

The, 

Ballad of the 'Clampher- 

down,' The, 
Ballad of the King's Jest, 

The, . . . . . 
Ballad of the King's Mercy, 

The, 

'Beat off in our last fight 

were we?' . 
Bee Boy's Song, The, 
Bees and the Flies, The, . 
Before a Midnight breaks in 

Storm, .... 



352 
167 
140 
34i 
3 

17 
312 

327 
172 

65 
49 
16 

338 
76 

75 
57 
53 

292 
312 
295 

196 



Before Edgehill Fight, 

Bell Buoy, The, 

Bells and the Queen, The 

Belts, 

Beyond the path of the out 

most Sun, . 
'Birds of Prey' March, 

Boots, 

Bridge-guard in the Kar 

roo 

British Roman Song, A, 
Broken Men, The, 
Brookland Road, . 
'Brown Bess,' . 
Buddha at Kamakura, 
Burial, The, 
Butterflies, . 



and O's,' 



Captive, The, 

Cells, 

Chant Pagan, 

Charm, A, . 

Chil's Song, 

'China-going P 

Cholera Camp, 

Cleared, . 

Coastwise Lights, The, 

Code of Morals 

Cold Iron, 

Columns, 

Conundrum of the Work 

shops, The, 
Cruisers, . 



A, 



35i 

198 

353 
40 

36 
179 
262 

239 
296 
206 
278 
352 
222 
213 
325 

288 
32 

251 
280 
288 

319 

184 

84 

93 

9 

282 

257 

81 
199 



363 



LIST OF POEMS ANNOTATED 



Danny Deever, . 

' Dark Children of the Mere 

and Marsh,' 
Darzee's Chaunt, . 
Deep-Sea Cables, The, 
Derelict, The, . 
Destroyers, The, 
Dirge of Dead Sisters, 
Divided Destinies, . 
Dove of Dacca, The, 
Dutch in Medway, The 
Dykes, The, 



'Eathen, The, . 
Eddi's Service, . 
Egg-Shell, The, 
England's Answer, . 
English Flag, The, 
'Et Dona Ferentes' 
Evarra and his Gods, 
Explorer, The, . 



PAGE 
27 

306 

344 
96 

134 

200 

244 

12 

64 

352 
204 



191 

284 
328 

99 

82 
232 

81 
209 



Fairies' Siege, The, 

Feet of the Young Men, The, 

Files, The, .... 

First Chantey, The, 

Flowers, The 

'Follow me 'Ome' . 

Ford o' Kabul River, . 

Frankie's Trade, 

From the Masjid-al-aqsa of 
Sayyid Ahmed (Waha- 
bi). See The Captive, . 

' Fuzzy-Wuzzy, ' 



Galley Slave, The, 
Gallio's Song, 
General Joubert, 
Gentlemen-Rankers, 
Giffen's Debt, . . 
Gift of the Sea, The, 
Gow's Watch, . 



285 
207 
241 
99 
153 
188 

44 
340 



29 



24 

293 

215 

44 

23 

80 

322 



Grave of the Hundred Head, 

The, .... 
Gunga, Din, 

Hadramauti, 

Half-Ballad of Waterval, 
Heriot's Ford, . 
Hymn before Action, . 

Imperial Rescript, An, 
In Spring Time, 
In the Neolithic Age, . 
In the State of Kot-Kum 

harsen, .... 
Islanders, The, . 

Jacket, The, 

Jubal and Tubal-Cain, 



11 

34 

290 
265 
339 
152 

86 

24 
158 

355 
245 

189 

300 



Kaspar's Song in Varda {see 

Butterflies), . . . 325 

King, The, 122 

King Henry VII and the 

Shipwrights, . . . 336 

King's Task, The, . . . 328 

Kitchener's School, . . 233 



Lament of the Border Cattle 

Thief, The, 
'Lark will make her hymn to 

God, The,' . 
Last Chantey, The, 
Last Department, The, 
Last Rhyme of TrueThomas, 

The, .... 
Last Suttee, The, . 
Legend of the ForeignOfRce 

A, ..... . 

Legends of Evil, The, 

Lesson, The, 

Lichtenberg, 

Liner She's a Lady, The, 

Long Trail, The, . 

Loot, 



68 

293 
101 

9 

155 

52 

3 

82 

240 

263 

138 

88 

37 



364 



LIST OF POEMS ANNOTATED 



Lost Legion, The, 
Lukannon, . 



M' Andrew's Hymn, 
Mandalay, . 
Man who could write, The 
Married Man, The, 
'Mary Gloster,' The, 
Masque of Plenty, The, 
'Men that fought at Min 

den, The/ . 
Merchantmen, The, 
Merrow Down, . 
M. L, 



Miracles, The, . 
Mother Lodge, The, . 
Mowgli's Song against 

People, .... 
Mulholland's Contract, 
Municipal, .... 
'My new-cut Ashlar,' . 

Native born, The, . 
New Knighthood, The, 
Norman and Saxon, 
Nursing Sister, The, . 

O Hassan! Saving Allah, 

there is none, . • . 
Old Issue, The, .... 
Old Men, The, . . . . 
Old Mother Laidinwool, . 
One Viceroy resigns, . 
Only Son, The, 

Oonts, 

Our Fathers of old, 

Our Lady of the Snows, . 

Outsong in the Jungle, 

Palace, The, .... 

Parade Song of the Camp 

Animals, .... 

Partingof the Columns, The, 



PAGE 
I46 
311 

IO8 
42 

8 

262 

167 

12 

182 
103 
313 
253 
119 

18S 

326 

139 

8 

284 

119 
286 
348 
325 



356 
237 
209 
316 

19 
325 

35 
304 
231 
287 

215 

308 
259 



Peace of Dives, The, . 
Pharaoh and the Sergeant, 
Philadelphia {Rewards and 

Fairies), 
Pict Song, A, . 

Piet, 

Pirates in England, The, 
'Pit where the buffalo 

cooled his hide,' 
'Poor Honest Men,' . 
Poseidon's Law, 
Prayer, The, 
Prophets at Home, 
Public Waste, . 
Puck's Song, 

Queen's Men, The, 

Recessional, .... 

Reeds of Runnymede, The 

Reformers, The, 

Rhyme of the Three Cap- 
tains, The, . 

Rhyme of theThreeSealers 
The, .... 

Rimini, 

Rimmon, . . . 

Ripple Song, A, 

Road-Song of the Bandar- 
Log, . . . . . 

Roman Centurion, The, 

Rosicrucian Subtleties, 

Route Marchin', . . 

Runes on Weland's Sword, 
The (Puck of Pook's 
Hill) 

Runners, The (Traffics and 
Discoveries), 

Run of the Downs, 

Rupaiyat of Omar Kal'vin, 



Sacrifice of Er-Heb, The, 
St. Helena Lullaby, A, 
Sappers, 



PAGE 

248 
230 

361 

296 
266 
347 

281 
298 
332 
345 
300 

4 

274 

322 

272 
349 
244 

69 

124 
297 
236 
324 

296 

346 

354 

45 



358 

358 

277 

11 

79 
287 
180 



365 



LIST OF POEMS ANNOTATED 



Saxon Foundations of Eng- 
land, The, . 
School Song, A, 
Screw-Guns, 

Sea and the Hills, The, 
Sea-Wife, The, . 
Second Voyage, The, . 
Secret of the Machines, The 
Sergeant's Weddin', The, 
Sestina of the Tramp Royal 
Settlers, The, 
Shillin' a Day, . 
Shiv and the Grasshopper 
Shut-eye Sentry, The, 
Sir Richard's Song, 
Smuggler's Song, A, . 
'Snarleyow,' 
'Soldier and Sailor too,' 
Song of Diego Valdez, The 
Song of Kabir, A, . 
Song of the Banjo, The, 
Song of the Cities, The, 
Song of the Dead, The, 
Song of the English, A, 
Song of the Fifth River, 
Song of the Men's Side, The, 
Song of the Red War Boat, 
Song of the Sons, The, 
Song of the Wise Children, 
Song of the Women, The, 
Song to Mithras, A, . 

Stellenbosh, 

'Stone's throw out on either 
hand, A,' . . . . 
Story of Ung, The, 
Sussex, 

Tale of Two Cities, A, 

That Day, 

'There was never a queen 

like Balkis,' . . 

This is the mouth-filling 

song, 

Thorkild's Song, 



347 
302 

31 
196 

152 
203 

353 
189 
171 
250 

47 

284 
194 
279 

335 

38 

178 

205 

282 

135 

97 

94 

93 

307 

341 

323 

97 

221 

14 

285 
264 

281 
162 
216 

22 
182 

321 

3i8 
341 



PAGE 

Three-Decker, The, . . 164 

Three-part Song, A, . . 277 

Tomlinson, 87 

Tommy, 28 

To T. A. (Thomas Atkins), 26 

To the City of Bombay, 93 

To the True Romance, . 152 

To the Unknown Goddess, 10 

Tree Song, A, . 279 

Troopin,' 43 

Truce of the Bear, The, . 208 

Truthful Song, A, . . . 334 
Two Cousins, The {see 'The 

Queen's Men'), . . 322 

Two Kopjes, .... 260 

Two-sided Man, The, . . 309 

Ubique, 270 



Voortrekker, The, 



301 



'We be Gods of the East,' 292 

Wet Litany, The, . . . 337 

What happened, ... 5 

What the People said, . 18 
When 'Omer smote his 

bloomin' Lyre, . . 171 
'When the cabin port-holes 

are dark and green,' . 318 

White Horses, .... 202 

White Man's Burden, The, 229 

Widow at Windsor, The, . 40 

Widow's Party, The, . . 43 

'Wilful Missing,' . . . 270 
William the Conqueror's 

Work, . ... 348 

With Drake in the Tropics, 350 
With Scindia to Delhi, 



Yea, voice of every soul that 
clung, 

' Yet at the last, ere our spear- 
men had found him,' 

Young British Soldier, The, 

Young Queen, The, 



59 



357 

293 
4i 

23S 



366 



GENERAL INDEX 

Note. — Where reference to more than one page is made, the number of 
the page on which the most complete note appears is given first. 



Aback and full .... 141 
Abazai .... 50, 56, 68 
Abdhur Rahman, Amir of Af- 
ghanistan, biographical 

note 53 

opinion of Lady Dufferin 14 
suspected of intrigue with 

Russia .... 
humorous cruelty of 
equanimity of 
Able Bastards . 



55 

56 

58 

164 



53 

39 

294 

209 

35o 

50 



A. B., Qualifications of an 292, 76 

Abu 

Action front .... 
Actions and Reactions 216, 

Adam-zad 

Admiral leads us on . 
Afghans, respect for courage 

at battle of Paniput 59, 60, 61 

Afract . . . . . . 333 

Afreedeeman {see Afridi) . 

African Steamship Company 169 

Afridi 32 

character of the ... 49 
revolt of the . . . .358 

Agulhas Roll . . . 107, 121 

Ahmed, king of Kabul . 59 

Ahmed, Sayyid (Wahabi). 289 

Aitchison, Sir Charles . . 20 

Alexander (herb) . . . 304 

Alexander the Great . . 308 

Allah, He called upon . . 293 

Allan Line 169 



Allobrogenses .... 161 
Alpha Centauri . . . 258 
Ambree, Mary . . . . 172 
American Bureau of Ethnol- 
ogy, Sixth Annual Re- 
port of 341 

American expressions . . 209 
American law and English 

authors 69 

Ananda 225 

Anchor Line . . . .320 
Ancient Akkad .... 249 
Ancient Landmarks (Masonic 

term) 187 

Andred's Wood . . . 328 

Angekok 310 

Anglo-Saxons . . .328, 330 
Anthropological Institute, 

Journal of the . . . 325 
Apocrypha, References to the — 
Ecclesiasticus xliv . 244, 303 
I Maccabees vi . . . 309 

Apollo 295 

Arabi (Ahmad) .... 190 

Arabs 291, 292 

Arelate 347 

Aristaeus 295 

Arquebus 123 

Artillery, charged French 

cavalry . . 190 

co-operation with infantry 272 
Royal Horse .... 38 
4th Battery .... 272 



367 



GENERAL INDEX 



PAGE 

Ashdod 249 

Ashlar 216 

Astrology 312 

and Medicine . . . 304 

At hack 322 

Athenaeum, Controversy in 

pages of 69, 70 

Atlantic Transport Line . 320 
Atkins, Thomas ... 26 
Atlantis, Lost . . . . 119 
Aurelian Road . . . .347 
Australia, 99, 94, 98, 146, 147, 

151, 153, 209, 213, 235, 259 
Australian blacks . 100, 316, 161 
Australian Commonwealth 235 

Avatar 167 

Axle arms ..... 190 
Azores, Off the .... 298 

Baboons — at the bottom . 260 

Babu 5 

Backing of wind against the 

sun 130 

Back pay 193 

Backstay 136 

Baganda 343 

Bagheera .... 287, 288 

Bahadur 355 

Bairagi 283 

Balestier, Wolcott . 4, 15, 16 

dedication to ... . 26 

Balkis 321 

Ball, V., contribution to 
Journal of Anthropologi- 
cal Institute . . . . 325 

Ballast 142, 170 

Baloo . . . 287, 288, 296 

Bandar-log .... 296, 287 

Bank, 'Olborn Bank . . 271 

Banks, The 124 

Bar, The .... 18, 68 

Barberton 251 

Barracoon 101 

Barracoot 101 



PAGE 

Barrens, The .... 95 

Barrier Reef .... 113 
Barrow and thecamp, The 217,276 

Barrows .... 343, 217 

Bars and rings .... 193 

Basil (herb) .... 292 

Bay, The 147 

Bayham's mouldering walls 274 
Bayonet, Uses of the . . 255 
Beagle (torpedo-boat de- 
stroyer) 201 

Beam-sea 88 

Beast, The 342 

Beast and Man in India 

... 24, 82, 306, 356 
Beaver Line . . . .320 

Bechuanas 342 

Beechmast 331 

Beetle (Kipling's nickname 

at school) . . . .302 

Beeves were salted thrice. 332 

Begum 21 

Belfast 252 

Bell and bell, 'Twixt . . 351 

Bell-bird 154 

Belloc, Hilaire . . . . 315 

Belphcebe 322 

Beltane fires . . . .331 

Benares 228 

Bend 128 

Bergen 83 

Bering Sea, Difficulties of 

navigation of . . . 125 

Bering, Vitus . . . . 132 

Bermuda 179 

Bernardmyo . . . . 179 

Berne 161 

Besant, Walter 70, 71, 73, 74 

Bhagwa Jhanda .... 63 

Bhao {see Sewdasheo Chim- 

najee Bhao) 

Bhils . ...... 6 

Bhisti, definition ... 34 

proverbial courage of . 35 



368 



GENERAL INDEX 









PAGE 




Bibby Line 321 


Bible, References to the — 


Genesis i .118, 152, 216 


Genesis iv 300 


Genesis x . 




249 


Genesis xxxix 




165 


Exodus iii 




233 


Exodus xiii 




231 


Exodus xvi 




230 


Deuteronomy vi . 




273 


Joshua x . 




339 


Judges v . 
I Samuel v . 




312 




249 


I Samuel ix, and x 




212 


I Kings v 




103 


I Kings x . 




103 


I Kings xviii . 




236 


II Kings v . 




236 


II Chronicles xxxv . 




250 


Job xii. 




246 


Job xxxviii 




117 


Job xxxix . 




273 


Psalm li . 




273 


Psalm xc . 




273 


Proverbs xxx . 




89 


Ecclesiastes vi 




114 


Ecclesiastes vii . 




171 


Ecclesiastes viii . 




. 262 


Song of Solomon vii 


i 


325 


Isaiah x . 




249 


Isaiah xi . 






■ 249 


Isaiah xvi 






. 250 


Isaiah xx . 






. 240 


Jeremiah xlvi 






• 250 


Jeremiah xlvii 
Ezekiel xxvii 


. 




250 






333 


Amos vi . 






249 


Jonah iv . 
Nahum iii. 






300 






273 


Matthew xii 






• 113 


Matthew xxi 






210 


Luke vi 






. 140 


Luke xvi 






248 



PAGE 



233 

IO 

294 

I02 

273 
I03 
IOI 



217 

112 



Bible, References to th 

Acts ii 

Acts xvii . 

Acts xviii . 

Acts xxvii 

Romans ii. 

Revelation iv 

Revelation xxi 

See also Apocrypha and 
Prayer-Book 
Bignor Hill (Sussex) 

Bilge 

Bilge-cocks 167 

Bilgewater 73 

Billy 146 

Biltong 268 

Birkenhead (troopship) . 179 

Birred 158 

Bitt (nautical term) 128,143,199 
Black, William . . 70, 74 
Blastoderms .... 82 
Blaze (trees) . . . . 212 

Blazon 156 

Blockhouses 269 

Bloemfontein, Typhoid at 244 
Bloeming-typhoidtein . . 259 

Blooded 136 

Blue Devil, A little . .328 
Blue Fuse .: ... 271 

Blue Peter 90 

Bluff 127, 128 

Boas, Dr. Franz (author of 
paper on The Central 
Eskimo) 
Boat, Evolution of the 
Bodhisat .... 
Boer Bread . 
Boers, at Majuba . 

early voortrekkers 

sham retreat tactics 

deprive prisoners of 
clothing .... 

wear British uniforms 

gifts and loans to 



34i 
100 
225 
267 
129 
152 
261 

264 
267 
269 



369 



GENERAL INDEX 



Bohs .... 66, 67, 7 

Bomba 242 

Bombardier 39 

Bombast Paracelsus . . 354 
Bombay .... 97, 93 

Bonair 50, 68 

Bonaparte, Napoleon . . 287 

Bonze 311 

Bookland 329 

Boom 72, 106 

Boomer 318 

Boondi 53 

Border-peels . . . . 358 

Bosenham 331 

Bosham (Sussex) . . .331 
Bower (anchor) . . . 142 
Bowhead .... 103, 163 
Bow Hill(Sussex) . . . 217 
Brace (nautical term) . . 334 
Brace and trim . . . 204 

Bramley 315 

Brandwater Basin . . . 252 
Brassbound Man . . . 332 

Brattled 158 

Bray 203 

Break her/back in the trough 3 24 
Breaming-fagots . . . 206 
Brenzett (Kent) . . . 277 
Brigandyne, Robert . . 336 

Brisbane 98 

British India Line. . 169, 320 
Broadstonebrook . . . 315 
Brocken-spectres . . . 243 
Brooke, Sir James . 147, 207 

Broomielaw 113 

'Brown Bess ' . . . .352 
Browning, Robert, Soul's 

Tragedy . . . .241 
Paracelsus . . . .354 
Brut (Early English chron- 
icle) 279 

Brut the Trojan . . . 280 
Buck, Sir Edward ... 19 
Buck on the move . . 260 



Buddha, Buddhism, 222-228,357 

Buddh-Gaya . . . 225, 228 

Bull, Siva's Sacred 

Bulkheads 

Buller, Sir Redvers 

Bunjara . 

Bunkers emptied in open sea 

Bunnia .... 

Bunt 

Bunting up sail. 
Burgash (Sayyid) . 

Burk 

Burke, Thomas 
Burmese 66, 67, 17 
Bury Hill (Sussex) 
Butt (nautical term) 
Button-stick 
Buttons (military) . 



30, 



Caburn, Mount (Sussex) 
Calcutta .... 

Calkins 

Callao 

Calno 

Calthrops .... 
Calvings (of icebergs) 



7 

24 

244 

335 
76 

355 

108 

108 

149 

85 

85 

43,7 

217 

128 

32 
28 



217 
97, 22 

49 

206 

249 

17, 18 

198 



Camel, knowledge of Name 

of God 51 

Camp and cattle guards . 267 
Camperdown (in collision 

with H.M.S. Victoria) . 180 
Canada, 231, 99, 95, 98, 120, 151 
Canadian preference to 

Great Britain . . . 231 

Candlemas 280 

Canteen . . . . 189, 35 
Cape Colony 121, 150, 153, 239 

See also South Africa 
Cape Town . . 98, 121, 153 
Captain (army), Number of 

men assigned to a . 184 

Captains Courageous . IOO, 168 

origin of title . . . 172 

Caraval 292 



370 



GENERAL INDEX 



Carchemish 249 

Careen 205, 135 

Carry (arms) . . . . 175 

Case 190, 39 

Caste 187 

Catafract 333 

Cat an' banjo .... 29 

Cathead 143 

Cattle, Singing to . . . 139 

Cautions 230 

Cavalry charged by artillery 190 

Cave-men 122 

Cavendish, Lord Frederick 84 

C.B. ...... 33 

Celestial wives for warriors 62 
Chanctonbury Ring (Sus- 
sex) . . 217, 276, 278 
ChandBardai (Hindoo poet) 62 
Chanties, 99, 100, 104, 136, 340 

Charles I 237 

Charnock, Job . . . 97, 22 

Chatham 5 

Chichester Harbour . . 331 

Chil ....... 288 

Child of the child I bore. 236 

'Children of the Night,' . 342 

Chitor 4 

siege of 65 

Chivers, Dr. Thomas Holley 243 

Chock (nautical term) . . 128 

Choosers of the Slain . . 201 

Chronic Ikonas .... 253 
Church's one Foundation, 

The 152 

Churel 281 

CLE., Nothing more than 4 

Cissbury Ring (Sussex) 217,276, 

........ 34i> 360 

C.I.V. (City Imperial Volun- 
teers) 261 

Clan-na-Gael .... 86 

Clapham Sect .... 162 

Claudius Caesar . . . 294 

Cleaning rod .... 38 



Cleat 129 

Clerk 349 

Clink 33, 40 

Clippers .... 168, 94 

Clobber 37 

Clubbed his wretched com- 



3 

183 

77 

77 



pany .... 
Clubbed their field parades 
Coal adrift adeck . 
Coal and fo'c'stle short . 
Coast-line of Sussex, Altera- 
tions in the . . . 277 
Cobra (torpedo-boat de- 
stroyer) 201 

Cohort 346 

Coil 323 

Colenbrander, J. . . . 214 

Colesberg Kop .... 272 

'College,' The ... . 5 

Collinga (Calcutta) . . 17 

Colour-casin's . . . . 176 
Colour sergeant, Position of 193, 27 

duties of ... . 193 
Colvin, Sir Auckland 8, 11, 19 

Comb, comber . . . 196, 135 

Comfits and pictures . . 246 

Commissionaires, Corps of 48 

Common 329 

Compass (mariner's), Eccen- 
tricities of . . . 78, 79 

Con 134 

Conchimarian horns . . 243 

Conductor-Sargent . . . 186 
Coney-catch . . , .325 

Congressmen, Indian . . 21 

Conning-tower .... 76 

Conscription and trade . 248 

Constantia 153 

Convoy, A homeward-bound 300 

Cook (tourist agency) . 164 

Coptics 230 

Corbet, Richard . . 172 

Cork court-house, Burning of 82 

Corporal's Guard ... 32 



371 



GENERAL INDEX 



PAGE 

Corps which is first among 

the women, etc. . . . 38 
Cosmopolouse ... .179 

County-folk 165 

Cover 179 

Cow guns 256 

Cowslip 305 

Cozen advantage . . . 323 

Crackers 191 

Crackling question . . 353 

Crackling tops .... 202 

Crimped 72 

Crocodile (troopship) . . 43 

Cross, Lord 19 

Crossets . . . . . . . 107 

Cross-surges 200 

Crosthwaite, Sir Charles . 19 
Cruisers, Functions of . 199, 75 

Crystal-gazing . . . . 196 

C.S.I., Lusted for a 4 

Culpeper, Nicholas . . 304 

Culverin 123 

Cunard Line . . . . 169 

Cymen's Ore . . . . 331 

Dacoits 7 

among Burmese royal 

family 66 

cruelty of 67 

Dago 89 

Damajee .... 61, 62 

Dammer 72, 68 

Dana's Sailing Manual . 140 
Two Years before the Mast 129 
Dances, Religious . . . 123 
Daoud Shah (Afghan gen- 
eral) 55 

Darjeeling 23 

Dartnell, General . . . 252 

Darzee 344 

Davit 144 

Dawson 260 

Day's Work, The . 6, 108, 115 

DeAar 268 



Dead March in Saul . .188 
De la Rey, General . 251, 263 
Delaware, Capes of the . 298 

Delhi rebels 40 

Delight of Wild Asses, The 10 

Delos 138 

Destroyers, Torpedo-boat . 201 
Detail Supply .... 257 

Details 239 

Deutsche-Ost- Africa Line 320 

Devadatta 357 

Devil's Dyke (Sussex). . 217 
De Wet, General 253, 256, 271 

Dewponds 217 

Diamond Hill .... 251 
Diamond Jubilee, Queen Vic- 
toria's . . . .231, 272 

Dilawar 51, 52 

Dingo 319 

Dipsy-lead ..... 74 
Dish, With begging . . 11 

Disko 83 

Ditch, The 178 

Ditchling Beacon (Sussex) 217, 277 
Divine Right . . . .350 

Djinn 281 

Dogger, The .... 83 

Dogras 49 

Dog-rib Indians . . . 100 
Domesday Book 275, 278, 331 
Dominant that runs . . 355 
Donkey, The, introduced the 

devil into the ark . 82 

Dooli 35 

Doolies ...... 44 

Dop 268 

Dordogne 163 

Double deck (cards) . . 128 

Drafting (of recruits) . . 191 

Drake, Francis . . 95, 350 

political importance of the 

discovery of the Horn 96 

at Chili 105 

childhood and training of 340 



372 



GENERAL INDEX 



14 



168 

174 
269 
166 

332 
144 
265 
96 
19 
15 
22 



293 
278 
252 
135 



Dreadnought (sailing ship) 
Dress (military command) 
Drives (in S. A. war) 
Drogue .... 
Dromond 

Drop (nautical term) 
D.S.O's .... 
Ducies .... 
Dufferin, Lady . 

work for Indian women 

dislike of punkahs . 
Dufferin, Lord (Viceroy of 
India) ... 15, 19 

Dule 

Duncton (Sussex) . 
Dundee (S. A.) ... 
Dung-fed camp smoke 

Dunting 278 

Durani 54 

Durbar 58 

Dutchman, The Flying 107, 166 
Dwerg ...... 159 

Dykes, construction of. . 205 

Eagles, The (Roman) . 298 

'Eagle' troop (R.H.A.) . 190 

Eblis 356, 291 

Eddi 284 

Egg-shell with a little Blue 

Devil inside . . .328 

Eight-ox plough . . . 330 

Eildon Tree Stone . . . 156 

Elecampane 304 

Elephants in Greek Armies 308 
Elliot, H. W. (author of An 

Arctic Province) . . 133 

Empusa 87 

Engineers, Corps of Royal 180 

Etawah 47 

Euchred 79 

Euphrates (troopship) . . 43 

Euroclydon . . . . . 347 
Europe-shop . . . .186 
Eusufzai (see Yusufzai) 



Eyass 322, 158 

Eyebright 304 

Eyes Front! 176 

Faenza 241 

Fairfield Church (Kent) . 279 
Fairies, Origin of popular 

belief in 296 

fear of iron . . .282, 339 

Falernian 334 

Fall (autumn) . . . -353 
Fall (rope) .... 143, 90 
Fanners (bees) . . . .313 
' Farewell Rewards and 

Fairies' (old song) 172, 339 

Fatigue 183, 41 

Fenians 86 

Fern (New Zealand) . . 154 
Fians, Fairies, and Picts . 297 
Fief and fee .... 279 

Field officer 194 

Fifty and Five, Law of the . 5 
Fifty North and Forty West 318 
Files on parade ... 27 
Finns (credited with magical 

powers) 129 

Fireworks (Indian) . . 18 
Firle Beacon (Sussex) . . 277 
Fish (anchor) .... 144 
Five-bob colonials . . . 257 
Five Free Nations . . . 235 

Flaw 104, 197 

Flax (New Zealand) . . 154 

Flaying 329 

Fleereth 200 

Fleet in Being, A, origin of 

title 172 

Flenching 103 

Flies (of tents) .... 185 
Flint workers .... 342 
Flood the Seeker . . . 355 

Fly River 147 

Fog-buoy's squattering flight 337 
Folkland ...... 329 



373 



GENERAL INDEX 



'Folk of the HUP ... 338 

Foothills 210 

Footings 216 

Footsack 256 

'Foreigners' 317 

Foreign lot (foreigners serv- 
ing with Boer forces) 266 

Foreloopers 151 

Foresheet 143 

Foresheet, Free .... 74 

Foresheet home .... 74 
Fourth Battery, The (R.F. 

A.) 272 

Fox, Blue 125 

Fox, Kit 125 

Frap (nautical term) . . 101 

Fraser, Prof. J. G. . 101 

Fratton 139 

Free Companies . . . 348 
Freemasonry . 185-187, 284, 40 

French, General . . . 252 

Frigate 199 

From Sea to Sea . 14, 23, 97 

Full and by .... 145 

Full-draught breeze . . no 

Full kit 28 

Fulmar 103 

Fundy Race . . . . 129 
Funerals, Military . . 188, 28 

Furrow (league long) . . 120 



Gadire (Palestine). . . 249 
Gadire (Hispania) . . . 334 

Galen 306 

Galle 260 

Galley 106 

Gallio, deputy of Achaia . 293 
Garth (North country word) 152 
Gascony archers, You can 

horsewhip . . . .348 

Gaskets 107, 144 

Gate (North country word) 152 
Gaur, City of ... . 64 



Gautama (see Buddha) 

Gay Street 113 

Gaze (tourist agency) . . 164 

Gear (North country word) 152 

Gear (rigging) . . . . 134 

Gentle yellow pirate . . 207 

Gentlemen-Adventurers . 102 

Gerb 323 

German Emperor, The . 86 

Ghazi 47 

Ghilzai 55 

caravan trade of . . 57 
Gholam Hyder (Afghan gen- 
eral) 58 

Ghylls 221 

Gilderoy's kite .... 240 

Girn 115 

Glacis 191 

Gladstone, W. E. . . 19, 97 

Gloriana 353 

Gnome 159 

Goatskin water-bag . . 34 

God, Names of . . . . 51 

Golden Gate, The ... 88 

Golden Hind . . . 96, 105 

Gomashta 67 

Goodwin Sands . . . 278 

Goose-step 173 

Goose-winged . . . . 127 
Gooverooska . . . .312 

Gordon, General . . 182, 231 

Gordon Memorial College 235 

Goshen 248 

Gothavn 'speckshioner . 103 

Govan 113 

Graham, Sir G. ... 30 

Grand Rounds .... 195 
Grand Trunk Road . . 45, 7 

Grant Road .... 112 

Green seas 78 

Grey-coat guard 57 

Gridiron 72 

Groundswell .... 203 

Guddee 283 



374 



GENERAL INDEX 



Guides, Queen's Own Corps 
of, formation and con- 
stitution .... 49 
a 'bhisti' rose to com- 
missioned rank in. . 35 
outlaws have served in 51 
Gunfleet Sands .... 91 

Gurkhas 49 

Guy (of davit) .... 144 

Habergeon 249 

Hadramaut 290 

Hadria 332 

Hai, Tyr, aie! . . . .344 
Hakluyt's Pollicy of keeping 

the Sea 333 

Voyages ..... 302 

Halberdiers 184 

Halifax 98 

Hall of Our Thousand Years 23 5 
Hamble-le-rice (Hants) . 336 

Hamtun 331 

Hamuli on the Hoke . . 336 
Hand grenades . . . 183 

Handsome (handsomely) . 143 

Hanuman 82 

Hardy, Thomas . . 70, 74 
Harness-cutting . . . 179 
Harrow Road . . . .314 
Harumfrodite . . . .178 
Hatch, Hatches 88, 114, 126 

Haversack 37 

Hazat Nuh (Noah) . .182 

Headlands 330 

Headsails . . " . . . 130 
Hearne, Lafcadio . . . 223 
Heathen kingdom Wilfrid 

found 219 

Heliograph 9 

Helmund 57 

Henri Grace a Dieu, The . 337 
Henry the Seventh's navy . 337 
Her that fell at Simon's 

Town 244 



PAGE 

Heratis 56 

Here's how! 151 

Hermes 138 

Hesperides 204 

Hippocrates 306 

Hirples 339 

Hirte, Toby . . . . 361 

Hobart 99 

Hog ....... 77 

Hogs, feeding at low tide . 129 

Hokee-mut 194 

Hollow square .... 27 

Holluschickie . 126, 129, 311 

Holy Ghost, Sin against the 113 

Hoogli 84 

Hookah 57 

Hooker (nautical term) . 335 
Hope, Sir Theodore Cra- 

croft 19, 20 

Hop-picking .... 316-318 

Horace's Odes . . . 138, 332 

Hotchkiss gun .... 75 

Htee 226 

Hubbard, A. J. and G. 
(authors of Neolithic 
Dezvponds and Cattle- 
ways) 218 

Hubshee 233 

Hull down 166 

Hunter, General Sir A. . 253 

Hunter, Sir William Wilson 20 

HurreeChunderMookerjee 5 

Hy-Brasil 303 

Ibsen, Henrik .... 87 

Ice-blink 103 

I.D.B 150 

Ikona 254 

Impi 30 

In Black and White . . 64 

Indian Foreign Office . . 3 

Inman Line. . . . 169, 164 
Institutio (Christianae Relig- 

ionis) no 



375 



GENERAL INDEX 



In yarak ..... 323 
Iron, protection against 

witches, fairies, etc. 282, 339 

Iron-smelting in Sussex . 275 

Irrawaddy River ... 30 

Islands of the Blest . . 164 

Islands of the Sea . . . 249 

Isle of Ghosts .... 108 

Italy, What's caught in . 323 

Ithuriel 8 



Jacala ..... 324, 327 
Jacket (of captain in Royal 

Horse Artillery) . . 190 
Jagai, Tongue of . . . 50 
Jane Harrigan's. . . . 112 

Jatakas 226 

Jats 68, 7 

Jaun Bazar (Calcutta) . 17 

Javan 333 

Jews and war . . . .308 

Jeypore 4 

Jezail 68 

Jiggers 115 

Jingal 17 

Jodhpur 4 

Johar, Rite of ... 64 

Johnny Bowlegs . . . 136 
Jolly (marine) .... 178 

Jonah 300 

Jones, Paul ... 69, 70 

Joss 128 

Joss-sticks .... 132, 225 
Joubert, Petrus Jacobus 215, 237 

Jubal 300 

Ju-ju ....... 309 

Juma, a bhisti of the Guides 35 
Jumna (troopship) ... 43 
Jumrood, Fort .... 57 

Jungle Book 31, 287, 296, 307, 344 
Jungle growth in deserted 

villages 326 

Junior Deacon (masonic 

term) 186 



PAGE 

Just-so Stories . . . 159, 318 
Jut {see Jats) 

Kaa 287 

Kabir 282, 345 

Kabulis 49 

Kaf to Kaf 234 

Kaffir . . . . .55, 293 

Kamakura 223 

Karela ...... 326 

Karoo desert .... 121 

Keep 156 

Kelpies 115 

Kelson 106 

Kensington draper, A . . 260 

Kentledge 106 

Kew 161 

Khatmandhu .... 161 

Khost, Hills of . . . . 61 
Khuttuks ... 57, 49, 68 

Kikar (tree) .... 283 

Kim 6, 11, 18, 93, 226, 281, 357 

Kimberley 150 

Kingsley, Mary . . . 244 
Kipling, John Lockwood 93, 82 

on the koil .... 24 

on Indian buffaloes 306, 307 
Kipling, Rudyard, born in 

Bombay 93 

collaboration with Wol- 

cott Balestier ... 26 

an authority on Burmese 

War ...... 17 

on engineering subjects . 108 

accuracy questioned . 263 

controversy with Walte- 
Besant, Thomas Hardy, 

and William Black . 70 

description of Gholam 

Hyde 58 

of burning of the Sarah 

Sands in 

indebtedness to work of 

others 171 



376 



GENERAL INDEX 



pen-pictures of Sussex . 216 
use of the Swastika . 222 
tribute to headmaster of 

his old school . . . 302 
foundations of his varied 

knowledge . . . .302 
use of quotations from the 

Bible 273 

would have made a good 
chantey-man . . .340 
Kitchener, Lord 234, 235, 269 
Kit-inspection .... 192 

Kling 74 

Kloof 95 

Knighthood, conferringof 156, 157 
Koldeway, Professor . . 216 
Koran ... 356, 321, 51 

Kowhai 154 

Kowloon 84 

Kraal 259 

Kruger, President Paul . 215, 

237. 238 

Kullah ...... 18 

Kurd 55 

Kurilies, The .... 84 



Labour (masonic term 
Lager 
Lake-folk 
Lalun 

Lama, Teshoo . 
Lamberts 
Lance-corporal . 
Land League (Irish) 
Land, Andrew . 
Lansdowne, Lord . 
Lapps .... 
Law, The (Buddhist) 
Lawrence, Saint 
Lawrence, Sir Henry 
Laws of England . 
Lay reader, A grim 
Lay your board 



) • 



187 

152 

161 

64 



. 240 

193, 184 

. 86 

196 

19 

• 342 

. 224 

■ 233 

49 

348, 330 

20 

. 104 



(early English 



Layamon 

poet) 279 

Lead (nautical term) . . 335 
Lectures on the Early History 

of the Kingship . . 1 01 

Lee-boarded luggers . . 207 
Leeuwin, The . . . .236 

Legate 346 

Lessened count . . . . 338 

Lettered doorways . . . 338 

Level (masonic term) . . 186 

Levin 200 

Levuka 217 

Leyland Line .... 169 

Lice in clothing of troops . 258 

Lichtenberg 263 

Lie down, my bold A.B. . 76 
Lieutenant (army), Number 

of men assigned to . 184 

Life's Handicap . . 6, 283 

Lift (nautical term), noun 334 

verb 165 

Light that Failed, The 30, 98, 100, 

.-. 293 

Lightning, The . . . . 168 

Limber 39, 191 

Limerick 138 

Linch (Sussex) .... 278 

Line, The 181 

Liner 138 

Lion's Head .... 98 

Little Folk . . 296, 338, 339 

Lloyd's, Money paid at . 78 

Lloyds 321 

Loben (Lobengula) . . 149 

Locking-ring .... 67 

Lodge (masonic) . . . 185 

Lodge that we tile . . 40 

Long Man of Wilmington 278 
Looshai {see Lushai) 

Loot 37 

Lop (nautical term) . . 324 

Loppage 330 

Lord Warden (Hotel) . . 206 



377 



GENERAL INDEX 



Lost Legion . 
Lowe . 
Lower Hope 
Lukannon 
Lullington Church 



PAGE 

6 
. 68 

• 9i 

• 3ii 
. 219 

Lumsden, Sir Harry . 49, 51 
Luna at her apogee . . 355 

Lushai 31 

Lyall, Sir Alfred Corny n 8, 19 
Lyke-Wake Dirge ... 81 
Lytton, Lord (Viceroy of 

India) 12 

M' Andrew (on Mary Gloster) 170 

Macassar Strait. . . . 170 

Machan 356 

MacRitchie, David (author 
of Fians, Fairies, and 

Puts') 297 

Magna Carta . . . 349, 237 

Mahdi, The 234 

Mahrattas 18 

at battleof Paniput59,6o,6i,62 

Mainsail haul .... 74 

Maiwand 182 

Majuba, Battle of . . . 29 

'Make it so' . . . . 75 

Make-hawk 322 

Malabar (troopship) . . 43 

Malakand Garrison . . 50 
Malay Magic, by W. W. Skeat 319 

Malays 207 

Mallie 9 

Malwa 53 

Mangosteens . . . . 321 

Manhood (Sussex) . . . 284 
Manoeuvres, restrictions on, 

in England . . . 246 

Many Inventions 6, 7, 8, 17, 37, 

• • • • i83» 325, 358 
origin of title . . . 171 

Maple Leaf 99 

Marabastad 268 

Marching order . . . 177 



Marigold 304 

Marine, The bleached . . 75 

Mark time 176 

Marker 195 

Marriage by capture . . 100 
Married soldiers' allowances, 

etc 41 

Marris 6 

Marryat (Captain), Poor Jack 323 

The Phantom Ship . . 107 

Martaban 162 

Martini 42 

Marwar 52 

M ary Fortune, The . . . 337 

Mary of the Tower, The . 337 

Maryhill 112 

Masai 147, 100 

Mashonas 149 

Masjid-al-aqsa . . . . 289 

Massilian juice .... 334 

Master (masonic term) . 188 

Master-mariner .... 167 

Mastodon 162 

Matabele . . . . 149, 214 

Matka (matkie) . . 125, 133 
Matoppo Hills . . . .214 
May Day, Ancient obser- 
vance on . . . .331 

Maya 225 

Men who could shoot and 

ride 247 

Merrow Down . . . . 313 

Mess . . .... 44 

Messageries Maritimes . 320 

Mess-tin 38 

Methodist, married or mad 181 

Mewar 52 

MidsummerEve,Dancingon 280 

Minchin, Lieut. ... 50 

Minden 182 

Mirza Moorad Alee Beg (ori- 
entalised Englishman) 59 

Mithras 285, 286 

Mlech 1 8, 60 



378 



GENERAL INDEX 



Moab, The pride of . . 250 
Mogul emperors . . 18, 19 
Mohammedan profession of 

faith 290 

soul on way to Paradise . 356 

Molly-mawk 103 

Monday head .... 39 
Money-market and war 248, 308 
Mongoose, supposed im- 
munity from snake-bite 3 27 
Monkeys, Indian belief con- 
cerning 82 

Montreal 98 

Mookerjee, Hurree Chunder 6 
Moon, Supposed evil in- 
fluence of 
Moonlighters 



35i 
85 
361 
106 
141 
91 



Moravians 

Mossel Bay . 

Mother Carey 

Mouse, The (lightship) 

Mowgli 325, 287, 288, 296, 307 

Muir, Sir William ... 12 

Muisenberg 153 

Mukamuk 311 

Mulhar Rao, Origin of . 61 
flight from battle of Pani- 

put 62 

Musketoons 184 

Musk-ox 83 

Musth 8 

Muttianee (Pass) . . . 209 

Nag 327, 345 

Naga . ..... 31 

Name, of God or divine 

beings not uttered 51, 343 

of savage beast not uttered 342 

of fairies not uttered . 338 

Napoleon Bonaparte . . 287 

Narbo 297 

Narrow Way, The . . . 224 

Natal 121 

{see also South Africa) 



Native follower ... 35 
Naulahka, The 26, 4, 15, 292, 355 

Nautch-girl 53 

Nemausus 346 

Neolithic Dezvponds and 
Cattleways, by A. J. and 
G.Hubbard ... 218 
Neolithic period (see Stone Age) 



Never-never country 
New Troy Town 
New Zealand 
Newfoundland . 
Next ahead . 
'Nilghai,' The . 
Nine point Two 
Nippon Yusen Kaisha 
Noble Eightfold Path, Th 
Nord-deutscher Lloyd 
Nordenfelt . . . 
Norns .... 
Norsemen in Sussex 
North-east Trade . 

Norther 

Note of ships' engines 
Nullahs . m . . . 
Number Nine 
Nut . . . 



Ocean Company . 
O'er-sib .... 
Oil-bags .... 
Old English poetry 
Om mane padme om 
Onion Guards . 
Ookiep 
Open order . 
Orang-Laut . 
Orderly officer . 
Orderly Room . 
Orient Line . 
Orlop .... 
Orontes (troopship) 
Osborn, E. B. . 
Otway Dist. (Victoria) 



213 
280 

99 

99 
338 
100 
301 
320 
224 
320 

76 
243 
275 

89 

1, 107 

108 

184 

112 

35 

169 

87 
166 

359 
227 
179 
268 
42 

74 
194 

33 

319 

24 

43 
151 
153 



379 



GENERAL INDEX 



PAGE 

Ouches 163 

Oudtshoorn ranges . . 239 

Outspan ...... 258 

Ovis Poli 208 

Pacific Steam Navigation Co. 169 

Pack — noun 201 

verb 135 

Pack-drill 33 

Packet „ 164 

Paddy Doyle .... 104 

Padre ...... 184 

Painted eyes (on ships) . 347 
Palaeolithic period {see Stone Age) 

Palcharas 63 

P. & O. Line . . . 169, 319 
Paniput, Battle of . 59, 60, 61 

Pannage 329 

Paracelsus 354 

Parkhead 112 

Parnell, C. S. . . 84, 85, 86 

Parsiwans 49 

Passage hawk . . . .322 
Passing, The (death-bed ob- 
servance) . . . .81 
Pathans . . . 29, 6, 32, 36 

Pau Amma 319 

Paul, St 293 

Pawl 141 

Paying with the foresheet 142 
Peacock Banner 67 

Peers 350 

Pelagian 118 

Pelham family . . . . 338 

Peliti's 12 

Pentecostal crew ... . 233 

Peshawur 51 

Petrels 293 

Pevensey Castle . . 221, 338 
Pharisee (fairy) . . . 339 
Philadelphia . . . 361, 353 
Phormio's fleet . . . . 333 
Picardy spears, Torture your 348 
Picaroon 101, 292 



Picket 239 

Picts 296 

Pieter's Hill . . . .251 

Pietersburg 240 

Pigtails instead of perukes . 352 
Pilgrim's Way, The . .313 

Pindharees 60 

Plague, at Uitvlugt . . 244 

in England .... 306 

Plain Tales from the Hills 7, 23, 59 

82, 281, 290 

Plewman's 268 

Plough the Sands . . . 209 
Plummer block .... 78 
Pocock, Roger (author of 

The Frontiersman) . 133 
Poetry, Form of Old English 359 

Pollokshaws 112 

Pompon .... 257, 265 
Pontic Shore .... 297 
Poop-lanterns . . . 350, 166 

Pop 30 

Port (arms) 175 

Port Darwin .... 260 
Portmanteau words, Cock- 
ney 253, 254 

Poseidon 332 

Praya 84, 98 

Prayer-book, References to 

the, Benedicite . . . 116 

Psalm xvi . . 93, 217 

Psalm cxv . . . . 117 
Forms of prayer to be 

used at sea. . . . 172 

Predestination . • . . . no 

Priapus 294 

Pribilof Islands . . . . 311 
Price, Cornell (Headmaster 
of the United Service 
College, Westward Ho) 302 
Procrastitues . . . . 179 
Profession of Faith, Mo- 
hammedan .... 289 
Proteus 295 



380 



GENERAL INDEX 



Psyche 325 

Pubbi 7 

Puck of Pook's Hill 216, 248, 274, 

279, 286, 297, 316, 317, 339, 358 

Pudmini, Rajpoot queen . 65 

Punt ....... 333 

Pusat Tasek . . . .320 

Push 255 

Pye 158 



Quagga's Poort 
Quartermaster (military) 
in merchant service . 

Quebec 

Queen's chocolate boxes 

Quoins 

Quoit (sikh weapon) . 



272 

38 

203 

99 

246 

216 

7 



Race (of ship's propeller) no, yj 

Rag-box ...... 41 

Rainbow, The . . . . 168 

Rajpoots 6 

armoury ..... 52 

descent 53 

preparation for celestial 

bridal 63 

rite of 'johar' among . 65 

Rajputana 53 

Ram (of naval gun) . . 75 

Ramazan .... 56 

R.A.M.R. Infantillery Corps 271 

Ram-you-dam-you-liner . 165 

Rangoon 98 

Ratas 154 

Ratched 107 

Ratcliffe Road .... 76 

Rattray, Lieut. ... 50 

Reay, Lord 19 

Red Ensign 145 

Reddick, The . . . . 112 

Red-eye 327 

Reliques of Ancient English 

Poetry 172 

Reserve Army . . .173, 262 



PAGE 

Ressaldar 50 

Reuben, Curse of . . . 45 

Reveille 40 

Revelry {see Reveille) 
Rewards and Fairies 158, 216, 219 
. . . 220, 304, 341, 361 
origin of title . . . 172 

Rhodanus 346 

Rhodes, Cecil . . . 213, 214 
Rhythm of ships' engines 117 
Rider (to troop) ... 45 
Right about turn . . . 174 
Right Divine . . . .350 
Right flank rear ... 35 
Rikki-tikki-tavi . . 327, 344 

Rimini 297 

Ripon, Lord (Viceroy of India) 13 

21 

Roberts, Lord 21, 189, 215, 252 
Robertus de Fluctibus. . 355 
Robust and Brass-bound 

Man, The .... 332 
Rocket (herb) .... 305 
Rocket (signalling at sea) 119, 94 
Rohillas . . ... 60 

Roland, Song of 137 

Romans in Britain 296, 276, 283 

346 

Rookies 175 

Rose of the Sun . . . 305 

Rosicrucian subtleties . . 354 

Rosie Crosse, Brethren of the 354 

Ross (rossignol) . . . 116 

Rubattinos 320 

Rue (herb) 305 

Ruffles were turned into stiff 

leather stocks . . .352. 

Runes 358 

Runnymede 237 

Russell, Dr. W. H. . . 29 

Rush, Dr. Benjamin . 361 
Russian the language of the 

seal-islands . . 312, 125 

Rye 221 



381 



GENERAL INDEX 



PAGE 

Sade, Marquis de . 87 

Saffi 242 

Saffron robe, Significance of 

the 60, 65 

Sag (nautical term) . . 77 

Sahib Bahadur .... 355 
St. Paul (island in Bering 

Sea) 311 

Sal (tree) 283 

Saltings 205 

Salt-tax (Indian) 11, 12, 13, 21 

Salue .151 

'Salun the Beragun' . . 59 

Samadh 17 

Sambhur .... 288, 327 

Sarah Sands, The . . . ill 

Sarawak 146 

Sargasso weed .... 202 

Sauer, Dr. Hans . . . 214 

Saxon shore, Count of the 347 

Sayyid Ahmed (Wahabi) . 289 

Sayyid Burgash . . . 149 

Scale 118 

Scalping 159 

Scarp 220 

'Scends ... . . 89 

Scindia (Mahratta chief) . 63 

Screw-guns 31 

Scud 145 

Sea-catchie .... 126, 132 

Sea-Dyaks 207 

Sea-egg 83 

Sea-forgotten walls . . 221 

Sea-gate 204 

Seal poachers .... 124 
Seals, Habits of 133, 134, 126, 311 

Seamen's boarding-houses. 16 

Sea-pull 130 

Second Jungle Book 93, 198, 207, 

. 209, 227, 287, 326 

Sedna 311 

Seedeeboy 148 

Seize (nautical term) . . 144 

Seizin 156 



38 



PAGE 

Selsey (Sussex) .... 220 

Sept ....... 248 

Serapis (troopship) . . 43 
Sergeant, Number of men 

assigned to a . . . 184 
Sestina, Definition of a . 171 
Seven-ounce nuggets . . 147 
Sewdasheo Chimnajee Bhao 60 

61, 62 

Sewdasheo Rao {see Sewdasheo 

Chimnajee Bhao) 
Shackle (of cable) . . . 127 
Shadow, the visible soul or 

spirit of man . . . 343 
Shaft (of propeller) . . 115 

Shalimar 68 

Shaman 309 

Shaw Savill Line . . . 320 

Shaws 221 

Sheba, Queen of 321 

Sheering gull .... 96 

Sheers 216 

Sheerstrake 130 

Sheet (nautical term) . . 130 
Shem, Tents of ... 88 
Shere Khan . . . 307, 287 

Sheristadar 9 

Shield-hung hull . . . 347 
Ships, Sea Songs and Shanties 105 
Shiva (Siva) . 187, 228, 284 
Shoe-peg oats .... 72 
Shout ('stand drinks') 41, 148 

Shrapnel 190 

'Shun 174 

Shwe Dagon . . . 98, 226 
Side-arms . . . 189, 40 

Sign that commands 'em 312 

Sikhs 6, 49 

Silent Trade, The . . 359-361 

Simla 3, 10, 12 

Simon's Town, Her that fell at 244 
Sir Patrick Spens . . . 102 
Siren .... 165, 91, 337 
Siva {see Shiva) 

2 



GENERAL INDEX 



335> 



242 
207 
125 
323 
336 
279 



Sivaji 61 

Skeat, W. W. (author of Malay 

Magic) 319 

Skerry 94 

Sleek-barrelled swell before 

storm 196 

Slingers 177 

Slings 106 

Slip (engineering term) . 118 

Slops 175 

Smiles, Samuel (author of 

Self Help, etc.) 
Smokes of Spring . 
Smoky Sea, The 
Smooth, Watch for a 
Smuggling, Ethics of 

use of churches for 

Snatch her 24 

Snifter-rod 116 

Social Hall 169 

Socks 36 

Solomon .... 103, 321 

Solutre 159 

'Something Orion' . . . 259 
Song of Roland . . 137 

'Song of the Returning 

Hunter' 341 

Soobah 64 

South Africa 250, 121, 99, 95, 271, 

272, 213, 215, 240, 245, 250-272 
South African Republic 
South Sea Islands 
Southampton 

county of 
Southern Broom 
Southern Cross . 
Sovereign, The . 
Spears John (author 

Master Mariners) . . 167 

Spindrift 93 

Spoor 208 

Springs (Transvaal) . . 252 

Squad 194 

Square (masonic term) . 186 



• 237 
147, 99 
33i 
336 

99 
120 

337 
of 



Stables 44 

Staff (military) . . . 262 
Stagnelius (Swedish poet) 325 

Stalky and Co 302 

Stanchion .... 139, 75 
'Stand by 'bell .... 118 
Star ' For Valour,' won by a 

'bhisti' 34 

among men of the Guides 49 
Start, The (signal station) 92 

Stavanger 341 

Stays 75 

Stealer, The 138 

Steaming to bell . . . 115 
Steel ships, First construc- 
tion of 169 

Steering-gear . . . . 335 
Stepped (nautical term) . 24 
Stern chaser .... 299 
Steyn, General .... 253 

Stirp 98 

Stone Age, Palaeolithic 158, 159 

Neolithic . . 158, 159, 160 

Neolithic in England 217, 276 

. . . . 278, 341, 360 

Stoop (veranda) . . . 167 

Strachey, Sir John ... 12 

Strake (nautical term) . 78 

Stripe . . . 188, 33, 28 

Suakim 29 

Sudanese 30 

Sumbawa Head . . . 113 

Sun, Backing of wind against 130 
Sun-born, The .... 53 

Sun-dogs 130 

Sungar 56 

Supi-yaw-lat, Queen of Burma 65 
Sussex .216-221,274-277, 338 



kingdom of 


21 


9, s 


84, 


328, 


33i 


Sussex steers 








221 


Sutherland 












240 


Suttee 












V 


Swag . 












151 


Swagger cane 












I7S 



383 



GENERAL INDEX 



Swastika, The .... 222 

Swats 49 

Sweep-head 24 

Sweepstakes, The . . . 337 
Swift (torpedo-boat destroyer) 201 

Swig 35 

Swin, The 96 

Swing for ..... 192 

Swipes 188 

Sword-wide bridge, The. . 356 



Tabaqui .... 287, 327 

Taboo of names of fairies . 338 
of dreaded animals 
of divine beings . . 51, 

TafRmai Metallumai 

Tail (property) 

Tailor-bird 



53> 



Talleyrand 

Tally on . 

Tarshish . 

Tasman, Able 

Taupo, Lake 

Temple, Sir Richard 

Tender (to ship) 

Tenderden (Kent) 

Teraphs . 

Texel .... 

Thakur . 

Thalamite 

Thane 

Theebaw, King of Burma 

Theft and the track of kine 

Their lawful occasions (origin 

of title) . 
Thermantidote . 
'Thirteen-two' . 
Thomas of Erceldoune 
Thranite ... 
Thrash {see Thresh) 
Three-reef gale . 
Thresh, Thrash 145, 77 
Thresher (shark) 
1 hreshold spells 



342 
343 
316 
156 

344 
361 

143 

334 

99 

154 

13 
116 

279 
248 
106 
355 
333 
348 
65 
330 

172 

10, 24 

10 

155 
333 



• 341 
166, 207 

• 75 
. 221 



Tibetan drums, The thunder of 226 

Ticky 173 

Tiercel 322 

Tilt (of ships' engines) . 117 

Timaru 260 

Times, The 84 

Tin Gods on the Mountain 

Side 4 

Tirings 322 

Tod's Annals of Rajasthan . 62 

Tolindos 343 

Tolstoi Mees . . . . 131 

Tolstoy, Leo .... 87 

Tonga 356, 17 

Tonk ....... 53 

Top-men 25 

Topping-lift 129 

Torpedo-boat destroyer . 200 

Totem 160 

'Touch and remit' ... 93 
Touch, necessity of keep- 
ing ... in ranks . 176 

Trades, The 197 

Traffics and Discoveries 6, 216, 255, 

267, 275, 288, 325, 328, 358 

origin of title . . . 171 

Traill, Henry Duff . . . 161 

Trails 209, 151 

Tramp (steamer) ... 88 

Trapesings 288 

Trees (nautical term) . . 191 

Trek 136 

Treyford (Sussex) . . . 278 

Trichies 188 

Trick (nautical term) . . 341 

Trim (of a ship) . . . 1 70 

Trip hammer . ... 118 

Triple Crown, The . . . 285 

Troll 159 

Truck 107 

Truleigh (Sussex) . . . 278 

Tryon, Admiral . . . . 180 

Try-pit 117 

Tubal-cain 300 



384 



GENERAL INDEX 



Tulsi (plant) .... 292 

Tulwar 68 

Tununirmiut . . . .341 

Tups 86 

Turcomans 49 

Two-reef sailing . . .324 
Typhoid epidemic at Bloem- 

fontein 244 

Tyr (the god) . 343, 342, 344 
Tyre 326 

Udaipur 4 

Uitvlugt, Them that died at 244 

Ulwar 52 

Under the Deodars . . . 185 
Union-Castle Line . . . 320 
Union Steamship Co. . . 169 

Upsaras 62 

U.S.A. ..... 167, 353 

conclusion of peace with 
Spain 229 

Venezuela Boundary Dis- 
pute .... 98, 232 

Usbeg 56, 58 

Ushant in 

Valley Forge . . . . 352 

Van Dieman, Anthony . 99 

Vane 107 

Vauban (military engineer) 5 

Vectis 346 

Veering of wind . . . 131 

Veldt-sores 254 

Venezuela Boundary Dis- 
pute 98, 232 

Vereeniging . . - . . . 252 

Vervain 305 

Via Aurelia 297 

Victoria (flagship) . . . 180 
Victoria, Queen . 13, 14, 18, 38 

Vincent, St., Motto of . . 243 
Virgil's Aeneid . . . .232 

Georgics 295 

'Virginny' 298 



Visiting rounds . . . 195 

Voe 94 

Voorloopers 262 

Voortrekker .... 152, 301 

V. P. P 66 

Wahabis 289, 7 

Wall, the (Hadrian's) 286, 346 
Wallaby track .... 146 
Walter, Captain Sir Ed- 
ward 48 

Walty 105 

War and money market 248, 308 

Warp 204, 90 

Warrigal 94 

Wash along the side . . . 337 

Watch 204, 164 

Waterval 265 

Wattle 263 

Wattle Bloom .... 99 
Waxen Heath .... 99 
Way, The (Buddhist) 224, 283 
Wayland Smith (see Weland) 
Wayside magic . . 221 

Weald, The 219, 274, 275, 328 
Wedding festivities (Indian) 13 
Wee Willie Winkie . . . 6 

Weland 359 

Wellcome Tropical Research 

Laboratory .... 235 
Wellington, Duke of . 26 

Welsh Fusiliers, Royal . . 352 
West Indies .... 99 
Westland, Sir James . . 19 
Westward Ho (United Ser- 
vice College) . . 302, 303 
Whall, W. B. (author of 
Ships, Sea Songs and 
Shanties) . . . 105, 340 
Wheel (of ship) . . 79, 335 

Whins 126 

Whipping up and leading 

down 210 

White, Sir George . . . 215 



385 



GENERAL INDEX 



PAGE 

White horses . . 198, 202, 203 
White Man's country . . 212 
White Star Line . . .320 
White water .... 198 
Whitehawk Hill (Sussex) . 217 
Who's there? . . . 195, 176 
Widdershins ... .131 

Widow 38, 40 

Wilfrid, St. 219, 220, 284, 323 

328 

Wilmington, Long Man of 220 
Wilson, Sir Alexander . . 19 

Winchelsea 221 

Winddoor Hill . 219, 220, 278 
Winds, Scientific mapping of 123 
Windy town, The . . . 154 
Wireless telegraph . . . 353 

Witan, The 328 

Woking 170 

Wolf-reared children . . 325 
Wolseley, Lord . . . 19, 190 
Wolverine 95 



PAGE 

Wolves, Division of labour 

among 288 

Women's side . . . . 344 

Wondrous names of God . 51 

Wood, Sir Evelyn . . . 230 
Wrecks, said not to reach 

bottom of ocean . . 96 

Wynberg 1153 

Yahoo 72 

Yarak, in 323 

Yoginis 63 

Yokohama pirates, The. . 125 

Yoshiwara girls . . . . 131 
Yusufzai . . . . 55, 49 

Zam Zammah .... 61 

Zenanas 15 

Zinnendorf, Count . . . 361 

Zodiac, Signs of the . . 312 

Zuka Kheyl . . .56, 68, 358 

Zuleika 164 

Zulus 30 



386 






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